What is "tichel"

n. a headscarf worn by married Jewish women in compliance with the code of modesty known as tzeniut.

The tichel ( Yiddish טיכל tikhl), also called a mitpachat ( Hebrew מִטפַּחַת miṭpaḥat), is a headscarf worn by many married Orthodox Jewish women in compliance with the code of modesty known as tzniut. Tichels can range from a very simple plain color cotton square with a simple tie in the back to very elaborate fabrics with very complex ties using multiple fabrics. As with any other form of clothing, the tichel is influenced by fashion.

The Yiddish word 'Tichel' stems from the German-dialect word 'Tüchel' = high-German 'Tüchlein' = small piece of cloth, which is the grammatical diminutive of the word 'Tuch' = cloth. The phonetic transition from 'Tüchel' to 'Tichel' is due to the difficulty of East European speakers to pronounce the German umlaut vowel 'ü'.