The noun bangs, meaning “hair cut straight across the forehead,” may derive from the idea of the word bang meaning “abruptly,” as in a bangtail horse whose tail is trimmed straight across. The verb curtail, meaning to “cut off,” was first used to mean “dock a horse’s tail,” and then later applied more generally to mean “shorten” or “diminish.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Origin of “Bangs” in “Hair Bangs””
We were talking the other day about the fact that the world of horses has given us so many terms.
We were talking specifically about the term free reign.
And giving someone free reign means you sort of loosen your grip on the reins and give them a little more freedom.
And I was thinking about the fact that just horse hair has also given us terms.
The term curtail comes from the idea of horses with docked tails.
And it comes to us from Latin originally via French.
And then the other word that I was thinking of that has to do with horse hair and tails is, of course, our word bangs.
Oh.
The kind of bangs that come down.
Yeah, or the British word called the fringe.
The fringe, yes.
Yes, that hair that is a common cut, originally referred to a horse’s tail cut bang across.
Bang across, like slash or just sharp edge.
Yeah, so the bangs on your head are an echo of a horse that had a tail cut short.
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