Drag racing

Filed Under January 2008, columns 

Dear Word Detective: Recently while driving down the street, one of my siblings mentioned something about “drag racing,” a phrase which for me conjures up images of men running in high heels and outrageous evening gowns. After we safely arrived home without any demonstrations of the phrase’s true meaning, I immediately hopped on your website to look up its origin. I see that you’ve covered the Cher-impersonating sort of “drag” before, but what can you tell us about its other meanings? — Justin Lee.

Do people really impersonate Cher? How odd. Charo I could see. Incidentally, did you know that Charo (real name Maria Rosario Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza), known in the US primarily as a fixture on 1970s talk shows, is a world-class musician, twice voted “Best Classical Flamenco Guitarist in the World” by Guitar Player Magazine? Spooky. There’s a bio at www.charo.com if you don’t believe me.

OK, back to business. I did write about several uses of the word “drag” just a while back, but to recap for those of you who were out of the room, “drag” popped up in English in the 15th century, having been adopted from an old Germanic root word meaning “to draw or pull.” Since then, “drag” has acquired a wide variety of extended uses, including “to drag” on a cigarette (by strongly pulling the smoke from it), “to drag one’s feet” (move reluctantly, as if dragging a great weight), and “to be in drag,” meaning to wear women’s clothing or to impersonate a woman. This last sense comes from the theater, and refers to the novel (to a male actor) sensation of “dragging” a long skirt across the stage while dressed as a woman.

The use of “drag” in “drag race,” meaning a car race held on city streets (as opposed to on a track) comes from one of the earliest uses of “drag,” that being “wagon or cart” (”dragged” by a horse), which dates back to the 18th century. By the mid-1800s, “drag” was being applied to the streets themselves, a sense we still use when we speak of “the main drag” of a small town. A “drag race,” which appeared in the early 1950s, was originally simply a race held on the “main drag,” but the term was carried over to such races held in more isolated spots, such as abandoned airstrips. Eventually “drag racing” became a highly-developed and specialized sport with matches held at “drag strips” and featuring the “nitro-burning funny cars” we all love. Ahem.

Modern “drag races” almost always involve acceleration from a stationary position, thus giving the appearance that the cars are “dragging” against inertia as they speed up, which has probably strengthened popular use of the term “drag” in connection with such races.

 

 

Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.