דַּרְדָּס (dardas) — Smurf; (historically) sandal/foot-covering

Etymology

The word דַּרְדָּס has two distinct lives separated by many centuries. In its ancient form, it appears in the Jerusalem Talmud (Kilayim 9:4) in an Aramaic passage where the Amoraim use it as the name of some type of footwear. Scholars believe the word is actually a corruption of "bardusim," a type of Roman military shoe called bardicus in Latin, which is the subject of the Mishna passage in that section.

The word was revived in the 19th century by Mendele Mocher Sforim, who borrowed it from the Talmud and used it in his 1862 natural history book Toldot HaTeva as the Hebrew word for "stocking" (glossed with the German Strümpfe). In the same period, the Persian-origin word פֻּזְמָק also competed to fill the role of "stocking" in Hebrew. Ultimately, both were displaced by גֶּרֶב, coined by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda based on the Arabic jawrab (attested in his newspaper by January 1888).

When rights to the Belgian cartoon The Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs, created by Peyo/Pierre Culliford in 1958) were acquired by Israeli companies in autumn 1981, a meeting was held to choose a Hebrew name for the little blue creatures. Yachiam Padan, children's book editor at Zmora Bitan publishers, proposed "דרדס" because the German name for the Smurfs is Strümpfe (stockings) — and דרדס was an old Hebrew word for a foot-covering. Padan also noted that the word sounded close to דרדק (young child) and קונדס (rascal), and that it lent itself well to Hebrew inflection. The name first appeared in public in October 1981, on the record "Tzipi Shavit and the Dardassim." The TV series began broadcasting on Israeli television on October 5, 1983, and the Smurfs craze that followed made the word a household name.

Key Quotes

"דרדס - מפרש אבן-שושן - הוא נעל-בית, סנדל. השטרומפים, כשמם של הדרדסים במקור חובשים לראשיהם גרב מצחיק" — יחיעם פדן, מעריב, פברואר 1984

"הדרדסומניה מאיימת להיות לשגעון לאומי" — מעריב, ינואר 1984

Timeline

• Ancient: דרדסים appears in Jerusalem Talmud, Kilayim 9:4, as a type of footwear (probably a corruption of Latin bardicus)
• 1862: Mendele Mocher Sforim uses דרדסין in Toldot HaTeva to mean "stockings" (glossed with German Strümpfe)
• 1888: Ben-Yehuda introduces גרב, displacing both פוזמק and דרדס from everyday use
• 1892: Ben-Yehuda explicitly notes that דרדס is a Hebrew word for "stocking" but prefers גרב
• 1958: Belgian cartoonist Peyo creates Les Schtroumpfs
• September 1981: The Smurfs TV series begins on NBC in the US
• Autumn 1981: Israeli companies acquire Smurfs rights; Yachiam Padan proposes "דרדסים"
• October 1981: First public use — the record "Tzipi Shavit and the Dardassim"
• October 5, 1983: The Smurfs (הדרדסים) begins airing on Israeli television
• 1984–1985: "Dardazomania" sweeps Israel; ~15 million shekels of Smurfs merchandise sold

Related Words

• גרב — stocking/sock (Ben-Yehuda's competing revival, from Arabic jawrab, which won out)
• פוזמק — stocking (Persian origin, appearing in Babylonian Talmud, now archaic)
• דרדק — young child, toddler (semantic association that made the name appealing)
• שטרומפף — German: stocking/sock (etymological trigger for choosing דרדס)