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That short fringe of hair beloved by little girls and Bettie Page wannabes owes its name to the same abrupt, sudden nature of the original word "bang." "Bang" comes from an Old Norse word "banga" which meant "to hammer." In 16th-century England, "bang" was used to mean "to strike violently." By the 1800s, "bang" was associated with sudden, loud noises, such as slamming a door. This sense of suddenness may be the key to the hair question. The phrase "to cut (something) bang off" meant to cut suddenly or cut a sharp, abrupt line. In the 1860s, "bangtail" came into use to describe a horse tail style. The tail was trimmed in a horizontal line to give it an even end. The name for the equine style was quickly adopted for human hairstyles. A straight line of hair on the forehead was first called a "bang" or "bangs" in the late 1870s in the U.S. Interestingly, the British call the same hairstyle fringe, as it resembles a fringed border or trim. In the U.K., "bang" is often used as a vulgar slang term that might also be familiar in the States.
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