I’m reading the latest Spenser book, and I come upon a word entirely new to me: “durag”. An associate of Hawk supplying Spenser and Hawk with guns following a plane trip to California is described as wearing one.
So I pull out my trusty American Heritage dictionary to look it up. No dice. I run a web search. It appears to be either some type of mechanical device or something German, so no help there. I try dictonary.com. No entry. I ask some colleagues at work, and none of them seem to be familiar with the word.
So I am completely stumped. Either Parker made up the word or it’s some type of slang he assumes most readers would be familiar with.
A little research led me to an alternative spelling du rag, also doo rag and doo du rag. It’s a bandanna-like scarf popular with young African-American men.
“Do” as in a hair-do (although some people have hair styles that are more like “hair-don’ts”). Rag is kinda self explanatory, although it’s usually a bandana fashioned for the head.
Hair-do rag. “Do rag”.
Q. How do you like my new hair-do?
A. That ain’t a do, that’s a don’t. Get a do-rag.
