Many credit American poet E. E. Cummings with coining the term duffel bag (sometimes spelled duffle bag). Cummings served as an ambulance driver in France during WWI, and in a letter that he wrote, he mentioned that he "...had a duffle-bag, chuck full." The fabric used to make that bag was a heavy-duty woolen cloth created in the Belgian town of Duffel.
More facts about duffel bags:
- Many militaries issue duffel bags to their servicepeople, who may also refer to them as ditty bags, kit bags, or seabags. Outside of a military context, people in the United States often refer to duffel bags as gym bags.
- Duffel, Belgium began its textile industry in the 1400s.
- The duffle coat got its name because it was made from the same material as duffel bags, although the coats themselves were never made in Belgium.