The term drag in the context of wearing clothes of the opposite sex originated in the early 1870s through various newspapers. There are a few theories about its origins, such as Yiddish trogn meaning “to wear” and Romani indraka meaning “dress”, but the most widely accepted explanation is that it simply comes from the verb to drag, referring to clothes dragging on the floor. In Middle English and Old English, it was draggen and dragan respectively. Dragan comes from Proto-Germanic dragana and Proto-Indo-European dreg, which had the same meanings as today. The term drag racing was first documented in 1947, likely stemming from an old slang term meaning “buggy” (which also comes from the verb, as horses would drag buggies).
