Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A square of cloth, often embroidered, traditionally worn as a headdress by Arab men, either by winding it around the head or by folding it into a triangle, draping it over the head, and securing it with an agal.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
cloth worn on the head and about the neck by some Arab males, indoors and out.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word keffiyeh.
Examples
-
This was unusual, as the keffiyeh is associated with Arab masculinity, and many believe this to be something of a fashion statement by Khaled, denoting her equality with men in the Palestinian armed struggle.
Archive 2008-01-01 Not a sheep 2008
-
The iconic "spider-web" black-and-white keffiyeh is often displayed symbolically by members of Arafat's Fateh party (which more generally uses yellow as its party colour), although it has never been able to expropriate it as their exclusive symbol.
Archive 2008-01-01 Not a sheep 2008
-
Another Palestinian figure associated with the keffiyeh is Leila Khaled, a female member of the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Archive 2008-01-01 Not a sheep 2008
-
The colors of the stitching in a keffiyeh are also vaguely associated with Palestinians 'political sympathies.
Archive 2008-01-01 Not a sheep 2008
-
Urban Outfitters calls their keffiyeh the “anti-war woven scarf.”
Stop wearing the Keffiyeh..... GayandRight 2009
-
Considering the violence associated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, calling the keffiyeh an “anti-war” scarf is extremely misleading.
Stop wearing the Keffiyeh..... GayandRight 2009
-
The keffiyeh is a piece of cloth that is really good at keeping the sun off your head and the sand off your face, it is worn all over the Arab world not just by Palestinians US soldiers wear them.
Stop wearing the Keffiyeh..... GayandRight 2009
-
With terror victorious, not only does a school teaching Arabic become a madrassa which necessarily means it teaches Islamic extremism, as Daniel Pipes believes, but a paisley scarf is necessarily a keffiyeh, which is necessarily a sign that the person wearing it favors "murdering Jews," as the above mentioned "pro-Jewish blogger" asserts.
-
The keffiyeh is a symbol of the PLO brought into the Western fashion lexicon by Yasser Arafat himself.
Doughnuts: The Third Rail of American Politics? - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com 2008
-
Rachael Ray's 'keffiyeh'-inspired scarf in a Dunkin' Donuts ad sparked conservative criticism.
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.