पट्टी

Puttee comes from Hindi paṭṭī (पट्टी), meaning a bandage or strip of cloth. The word traces further back to Sanskrit paṭṭa, a woven strip. In rural India, wrapping cloth strips around the lower legs was a practical measure against thorns, insects, and snakes. British soldiers in India adopted the practice and the word in the mid-19th century, finding that spiral leg wrappings provided ankle support on long marches across rough terrain.

The British Indian Army formalized puttees as standard issue in the 1890s. They were strips of khaki-coloured wool or cotton, about three inches wide and nine feet long, wound from ankle to knee in a precise spiral. Getting the wrap right was an art — too loose and they unravelled, too tight and they cut circulation. New recruits spent hours learning the technique under the barking instruction of sergeants who had themselves learned it from Indian soldiers.

Puttees went to war globally. British, Australian, New Zealand, and Indian troops wore them in the Boer War, World War I, and the early years of World War II. In the trenches of the Western Front, they offered some protection against mud and water, though soldiers universally complained about them. The American Expeditionary Forces adopted them in 1917, and photographs of doughboys in France show the distinctive spiral wrapping from ankle to knee.

By World War II, most armies had replaced puttees with gaiters or high boots. The word faded from common English. But in Hindi, paṭṭī is still an everyday word — for bandages, for strips of cloth, for anything wound in a strip. The military meaning was an English invention imposed on a Hindi word.