The duffle bag (or duffel bag — both spellings are correct) gets its name from a small Belgian town that most Americans have never heard of. Duffel is a municipality near Antwerp in Flanders, Belgium, where thick, coarse, woolen cloth has been produced since at least the mid-17th century.
This durable fabric became known as “duffel cloth,” or simply “duffel,” and it was prized for its resistance to wear and tear. Unlike the many fine fabrics produced in Europe, the material was used to make lower-cost, durable clothing, particularly coats, which were popular among fishermen. (The Paddington Bear character wears a classic-style duffel coat.) Spanish and Portuguese sailors traditionally used duffel as a covering material for ships, too. These sailors also used offcuts from the cloth to fashion crude bags in which to carry their belongings — possibly marking the first use of a duffle bag. (The town of Duffel produced only the fabric, not the bags.)
Merriam-Webster dates the word “duffel” to the late 17th century, when it initially referred to the fabric. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first mention of the bags, meanwhile, appeared in 1768 in the “Public Advertiser” newspaper, which ran an advertisement for “an old green Duffil Bag” (spelling was not standardized yet in 18th-century English). By this time, duffel cloth was known throughout much of Europe. William Wordsworth mentioned it (by its alternate spelling) in the 1802 poem “Alice Fell”: “And let it be of duffil grey, / As warm a cloak as man can sell!”
And in Thomas Carlyle’s History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, published in the mid-19th century, the original spelling returned: “wholesome useful duffel.”
While merchant sailors may have been among the first to make bags out of duffel cloth, duffle bags as we know them today arguably owe more credit to the military. American soldiers began using duffle bags in World War I. These early military versions were short and resembled knapsacks. Soldiers often found them cumbersome when fully packed and abandoned them in trenches.
It was World War II that transformed the duffle bag. The military developed longer, wider versions with stronger construction and sturdy straps, creating the typical cylindrical design we recognize today. After the war, surplus duffle bags flooded Army and Navy stores, and soon they found their way into the hands of the civilian population, who appreciated their simplicity and ruggedness. Today, any long, horizontal bag with carrying straps can be called a duffle bag, no matter what type of fabric it is.
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