"hat"

Charles C Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Mon Sep 3 15:52:35 UTC 2012


The OED says that the word "hat" refers to "A covering for the head; in recent use, generally distinguished from other head-gear, as a man's cap (or bonnet) and a woman's bonnet, by having a more or less horizontal brim all round the hemispherical, conical, or cylindrical part which covers the head."

I have always called such items as baseball players wear atop their heads "caps."  But individuals under the age of 30 or so (who seem ubiquitously to wear baseball caps, the males at least) typically refer to those billed-but-not-brimmed items of headwear as "hats."

Have any of y'all noticed this recent evolution in terminology?

Charlie

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