Bandanna

(Also Bandana)

A large square of cotton or linen that has been treated in some parts of its surface by a substance that will resist dye. When the fabric is dyed, the undyed spots produce a pattern. It is used principally for scarfs, furniture coverings, and bunting.

The term bandanna was applied originally to yellow or red silk handkerchiefs, with white or yellow spots, that were made in India by a process called bandhnu, in which the areas to remain undyed were knotted tightly. Portuguese travelers brought the idea to Europe in the 16th century. In the 18th century bandannas became popular in England as neckcloths and handkerchiefs. In the United States they were worn as neckcloths by cowboys in the West. (Encyclopedia Americana, Bandanna)

Probably from the Hindu bandhnu, a primitive method of tie-dyeing. The name was given to the large, brightly colored handkerchiefs produced by this process. The bandannas used by cowboys in the American West were often quite simple pieces of cloth dyed one color which could be worn around the neck or pulled up over the chin, mouth, and nose as protection against dust or as a means of concealing identity. Bandannas were worn, tucked into denim shirts, during the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the USA, when cowboy clothes were popular. (Encylopedia Of Fashion, Bandanna)

In the eighteenth century ... they were used as neckcloths or headkerchiefs. (Encyclopedia Of World Costume, Bandanna, Bandana)

Beginning with Howard Pyle during the 1880s, illustrations in pirate fiction occasionally show buccaneers wearing brightly colored headbands, and Douglas Fairbanks wears a bandanna in the film The Black Pirate (1926). Contemporary documents and historians, such as Exquemelin, do not mention any such headgear. Seamen obviously could not wear loose hats, which would blow away. In cold climates (but probably not in the Caribbean), some mariners wore tightly fitting cloth or leather caps, sometimes with ear flaps. (Rogozinski, Bandanna/Head Scarf)

It is unknown whether pirates used these brightly colored headbands, popularized in pirate films, but in cold weather they wore leather or cloth tight-fitting caps. The privateer William Williams in the 18th century wore a Scotch Bonnet, similar to today’s beret, which protected from the Caribbean sun and was unlikely to blow away. The Scotch Bonnet chili pepper (Habañero) is named after its similarity to this pirate headgear. The word comes from the Hindi bandhnu or badnu, a dyeing technique. (Breverton, Bandanna, Bandana)