Washrag vs. Washcloth

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Barbara. I’m from Winstead. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Sure. Welcome, Barbara.

Winstead where, Barbara?

Oh, Winston, Connecticut.

Okay, great. Nice to talk to you. What can we help you with?

Yes. I had a question about a word I used growing up. I think it mainly came from my mom using it.

It’s a wash rag.

And I used to use the word all the time until about the age of 20.

I had a friend who said it wasn’t really appropriate to use the word wash rag because when we used the word wash rag, we referred to it as something to bathe with or to wash your dishes with.

And I was curious about when was it inappropriate to use that as the term and the origination of it.

I had originally thought that the word came from more of the Depression, because my mom was born in 1936, and she grew up actually in Collinsville, Connecticut, which was more of a poor town, or if you lived there, you worked there.

Well, that’s interesting because I grew up in Kentucky and my parents were from the South and we used wash rag.

It was like it was one word. It wasn’t even, I never even broke up the words in my head to think that it was a rag with which you wash.

I just thought it was wash rag, just like we said tuna fish.

And Barbara’s seen here.

I grew up with the term in Missouri, probably from my father more than my mother.

And there was no stigma until I got to my 20s and started to realize that some people thought that wash rag was a little low class.

Is that what you’re saying too?

Yes, that’s exactly what happened with me.

Oh, interesting.

And the same with dish rag.

We wash the dishes with the dish rag, not the dishcloth, right?

Exactly.

Yes, yes.

That’s very interesting.

It sounds like we all have the same experience of not until our 20s hearing people say washcloth or facecloth.

To me, those terms sound prissy.

Yeah, facecloth is a little more British, right?

Or the flannel.

Well, I don’t know.

It shocked me the first time I heard people saying face cloth and washcloth.

As I understand it, Barbara, what we’re looking at here is not a dialect difference, but we’re looking at mostly a class difference.

And there has been this association with the terms washrag and dishrag with people who come from blue-collar backgrounds or perhaps aren’t in sophisticated urban environments.

And as far as I know, there’s not, say, I don’t think that it’s more southern.

I don’t think that it’s more rural.

It’s about where you come from.

It’s about the socioeconomic class that you belong to.

That makes sense, yes.

Well, and you asked how long it’s been around.

It’s been around since the 1890s or so in the U.S.

Yeah, and maybe earlier than that.

Probably.

Wash rag and dish rag are not used in the U.K., and the rag term may have a little bit more to do just to mean a scrap of cloth, not like a destroyed, stained, dirty piece of textiles, right?

There’s a slightly different rag we’re talking about here.

We’re talking about a perfectly fine piece of cloth, but it’s not like the oily rags out of the garage.

Right.

And the thing is, this class distinction is so strong that I defy you to get one of the fancy catalogs from one of these high-end stores and find them using the word wash rag anywhere in there.

That’s a good point.

It’s face cloth almost always.

Sometimes it’s washcloth.

It is never wash rag.

Probably something fancier than that in the catalogs, too.

Yeah, yeah.

I don’t know about you, Barbara, but I’m proud to use the word wash rag.

Depending on who I’m with, I tend to catch myself whether I use the word cloth or wash rag.

Yeah, it’s funny.

We do train ourselves, don’t we?

Yeah.

Barbara, thanks for calling.

We really appreciate it.

Oh, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

So which do you say, wash rag or wash cloth?

Dish rag or dish cloth?

Something else? 877-929-9673. Words@waywordradio.org.