I always chuckle when people call headscarfs “babushkas” (i.e. old women, grandmas).

I’m wondering if that was actually the term used in certain parts of the world. My Maternal Grandmother, of Blessed Memory, who was born in Belarus, would sometimes call a “snood” a “babushka”. Since her first language was Yiddish, and her Russian/Belorussian was limited to pleasantries and Russian “mot” slang, I’m wondering if it was a gentle derogatory term for the women who wore them. She certainly knew what the literal meaning of “бабушка” was. In Yiddish she’d say “אַלטיטשקע” (when being formal or mocking) or “באָבע” (“Bubbe” the word we all know as grandmother).

Wikipedia, for what it’s worth, lists scarf as a meaning for babushka.