Editing Dreadlocks (section)

==Etymology==
The word ''dreadlocks'' is usually understood to come from [[Jamaican Creole]] ''dread'', "member of the [[Rastafari|Rastafarian movement]] who wears his hair in dreadlocks" (compare [[Nazirite]]), referring to their [[fear of God|dread or awe of God]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Allsopp |first=Richard |date=1996 |title=dreadlocks |page=203 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PmvSk13sIc0C&pg=PA203 |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage |location=Kingston, Jamaica |publisher=[[University of the West Indies Press]] |isbn=978-976-640-145-0 |access-date=January 1, 2024}}</ref>  An older name for dreadlocks was ''[[Wiktionary:elflock|elflocks]]'', from the notion that [[elf|elves]] had matted the locks in people's [[sleep]].

Other origins have been proposed. Some authors trace the term to the [[Mau Mau rebellion|Mau Mau]], a group of whom apparently coined it from [[British Empire|British colonialists]] in 1959 as a reference to their dreadful hair.

In their 2014 book ''Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America'', Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps claimed that the name ''dredlocs'' originated in the time of the [[Slavery|slave trade]]: when transported Africans disembarked from the slave ships after spending months confined in [[Hygiene|unhygienic conditions]], [[White people|whites]] would report that their undressed and matted kinky hair was "dreadful". According to them, it is due to these circumstances that many people wearing the style today drop the ''a'' in ''dreadlock'' to avoid negative implications.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Byrd |first1=Ayana D. |last2=Tharps |first2=Lori L. |title=Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America |year=2014 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4668-7210-3 |page=121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYhEAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA121 |quote=ByrdTharps2014}}</ref>  

The word ''dreadlocks'' refers to locks of entangled hair.<ref>{{cite book
 | last1 = Evans
 | first1 = T.
 | last2 = Wickett
 | first2 = R. R.
 | editor1-last = Evans
 | editor1-first = T.
 | editor2-last = Wickett
 | editor2-first = R. R.
 | title = Practical Modern Hair Science
 | year = 2012
 | publisher = Allured Business Media
 | isbn = 978-1-932633-93-1
 | pages = 538
}}</ref> 

Several languages have names for these locks:

* ''Jaṭā'' In [[Sanskrit]].
* ''Ndiagne'' and ''Ndjan'' in [[Wolof language|Wolof]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Morris |first1=Julia |title=Baay Fall Sufi Da'iras Voicing Identity Through Acoustic Communities |journal=African Arts |date=2014 |volume=47 |issue=1 |page=45 |doi=10.1162/AFAR_a_00121 |jstor=43306204 |s2cid=57563314 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43306204 |access-date=5 December 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* ''Mpesempese'' in [[Akan religion|Akan]]. 
* ''Dada'' in [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Botchway |title=...The Hairs of Your Head Are All Numbered: Symbolisms of Hair and Dreadlocks in the Boboshanti Order of Rastafari |journal=Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=8 |page=25 |url=https://www.jpanafrican.org/docs/vol12no8/12.8-2-Botchway.pdf |access-date=20 November 2023}}</ref>
* ''Ezenwa'' and ''Elena'' in [[Igbo language|Igbo]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Aluko |first1=Adebukola |title="Dada": Beyond The Myths To Smart Haircare |url=https://radionigeriaibadan.gov.ng/2023/06/16/dada-beyond-the-myths-to-smart-haircare/ |website=Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria |date=16 June 2023 |access-date=22 November 2023}}</ref> 
* ''Goscha'' in [[Hamer language|Hamer]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sherrow |first1=Victoria |title=Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History |year=2023 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=9798216171683 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ganOEAAAQBAJ&dq=hamar+dreadlocks&pg=PA1966}}</ref> 
* ''Mhotsi'' in [[Shona language|Shona]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chikowero |first1=Mhoze |title=African Music, Power, and Being in Colonial Zimbabwe |year=2015 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=9780253018090 |page=260 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o3y9CgAAQBAJ&dq=mhotsi&pg=PA260}}</ref>
* ''Nontombi'' in [[Nyaneka language|Nyaneka]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Muila / Mumuila / Mwela / Plain Mumuila / Mountain Mumuila / Mwila |url=https://www.101lasttribes.com/tribes/muila.html |website=101lasttribes.com |access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref>
* ''Rastas'' in [[Spanish language|Spanish]].