Strips of material (usually cloth or tape) used to wrap around wounds or injuries to protect and help them heal.
From French 'bandage,' derived from 'bande' (a strip or band). 'Bande' comes from Germanic roots related to 'bind.' The suffix '-age' (from French) indicates a process or result, so literally 'something that binds.'
The modern bandage is surprisingly recent—adhesive bandages weren't invented until 1921 when a cotton buyer named Earle Dickson created them to help his wife's cooking injuries. Before that, people had to wrap cloth strips, which were way less convenient.
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