What is the etymology of the word 'dreadlocks?'

[Bricker]

I have heard some very different stories.

[markn_1]

According to The Online Etymology Dictionary:

1960, from dread + locks (see lock (n.2)). The style supposedly based on that of East African warriors. So called from the dread they presumably aroused in beholders, but Rastafarian dread (1974) also has a sense of “fear of the Lord,” expressed in part as alienation from contemporary society.

–Mark

[Bricker]

The version I read posited that the term arose from slave transporters who called the hair of their cargo “dreadful,” as in repulsive.

This seemed contrived to me.

[markn_1]

Given that the word didn’t appear until 1960, this seems exceedingly unlikely.

I don’t have access to the current OED, but the word doesn’t appear in the 1933 edition or the 1972 supplement. Google ngrams agrees with Online Etymology that it first appeared in 1960.

–Mark

[Bricker]

@markn_1

Given that the word didn’t appear until 1960, this seems exceedingly unlikely.

I don’t have access to the current OED, but the word doesn’t appear in the 1933 edition or the 1972 supplement. Google ngrams agrees with Online Etymology that it first appeared in 1960.

–Mark

Thanks. It seemed like a stretch but the slave shippers’ origin was advanced in a legal argument by the EEOC in a case in which they (the EEOC) sued on behalf of a prospective employee who was not hired based on her dreadlocks. The EEOC claimed, among other arguments, that the wearing of dreadlocks was a matter of racial identification and pride, and cited the story above.

[Colibri]

@Bricker

The version I read posited that the term arose from slave transporters who called the hair of their cargo “dreadful,” as in repulsive.

This seemed contrived to me.

That seems quite absurd to me, since I can’t recall slaves as being depicted as having dreadlocks or matted hair. Also, “dreadful” has undergone a semantic shift. It originally meant “full of dread,” that is, fearful, and later “causing dread, fear, or awe.” Neither is likely to have been applied to slaves. The meaning of “very bad” dates to around 1700. But there are a lot more likely adjectives to have been applied to slaves.

Some sites say that early followers of Marcus Garvey, the predecessors of Rastafarians, first called themselves “Dreads” because they dreaded God.

There is evidence that dreadlocks originated among Rastafarians in Jamaica in imitation of the matted hairstyles of Hindu holymen. Many Indian workers were imported into Jamaica and other Caribbean islands by the British after the slaves were freed in the 1830s. This sounds plausible to me. The “First Rasta” Leonard Howell was also known as Gong Guru Maragh.

[markn_1]

The EEOC needs to hire better etymologists.

–Mark

[Richard_Parker]

To be fair, the truth or falsity of the story isn’t really legally relevant if the point was the employee’s subjective motivations.

[rowrrbazzle]

Here’s what the Online OED says.

Etymology: < dread v. + locks, plural of lock n.1

Dread, v. : 1. a. trans. To fear greatly, be in mortal fear of; to regard with awe or reverence, venerate.

Earliest cites:

1960 M. G. Smith et al. Ras Tafari Movement in Kingston, Jamaica ii. 13 The plaiting of long hair by men known as the ‘men of dreadlocks’… These men of dreadlocks were the Ethiopian Warriors and the self-declared Niyamen.

1966 Guardian 22 Apr. 13/7 An extremist fringe of members distinguished by their long twisted hair or ‘dreadlocks’, which were modelled after pictures of Ethiopian warriors.

[Colibri]

@Richard_Parker

To be fair, the truth or falsity of the story isn’t really legally relevant if the point was the employee’s subjective motivations.

It seems to me that wearing dreadlocks could be a matter of “racial identification and pride” even based on the true story of the origin of the term. Making up stories seems unnecessary.