What does nappy headed mean?

"Nappy-headed" is a way of saying that your hair is all tangled up. It is the way that your hair would look if you just woke up from a nap. The term nap also has origins in yarn. If a yarn is frizzy, it is said to have a high nap, or is nappy.

It is sometimes used to describe what happens when people with thick curly hair get matting.

Because of this, the term is used as a racial defamatory. The term saw some negative media spotlight after being used by shock-jock radio host Don Imus, along with other negative terms, to describe a women's Basketball team.

Another possibility, although unlikely in the Don Imus case, is that nappy-headed could refer to the short form of 'napkin'. Napkin is the root Word for the diminutive 'nappy', which is the British-English Word for 'diaper'. Napkin is originally from the Middle French 'nappe', which goes back to Latin Word 'mappa', meaning cloth. Diaper comes from the Middle Greek Word 'diaspros' meaning pure white. In the same way the derogatory 'raghead' is in American usage for the Islamic 'burqa', 'hijab' or 'purdah' , the term 'nappy head' has been used to refer to the various forms of African head-dress, or head-tie known by many names, including 'shash' in Somalia.

To see more about the term, see the related links below.