zitful

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

     I checked the "zitful cap" item on Google, and it's clear that whatever a zitful cap is, it's not your parents' article of clothing.  It contains a very colorful scarf attached at the end (presumably the back of the cap), which can be wrapped around the neck and evidently the head too (hence its reminding the Google writer of a ski hat).  It is not only warm and cozy, "it is funny," and "[I'm] not sure whether you can imagine it though."
    The website this appears on has clearly been prepared by young people for a young audience. The "zitful cap" item was one of several responses to the question "What is your favourite item of clothing?"
As viewed by someone just a bit more mature, this colorful cap/scarf might be seen as funky and s-o-o-o adolescent, if you totally know what I'm talking about.  And what better put-down for something  hopelessly adolescent than to refer to it as "zitful"?  So (drumroll please) "zitful" in "zitful cap" probably does refer to pimples.
     Below my signoff is the Google item.

Gerald Cohen

Google item on "zitful cap":
         Re:RQ: What is your favourite item of clothing?
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2005, 01:35:20 PM »         Reply with quote <http://always.ejwsites.net/YaBBSE/index.php?board=16;action=post;threadid=25531;quote=814698;title=Post%2Breply;start=0;sesc=f972f888bd2c7597a4293471c5fa15be>
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Quote from: ~littledaydream~ on February 05, 2005, 10:51:09 AM <http://always.ejwsites.net/YaBBSE/index.php?action=display;board=16;threadid=25531;start=0#msg814630>

my cap with an included scarve (the ending of the cap is so long that it can be used as a scarve). It is very colourful, every colour of the rainbow, it is warm and cosy, and it is funny.  Not sure whether you can imagine it though   But I love it.
And my other hat. I love hats and caps and all that stuff.

xxx


I totally know what you're talking about. I think they're called zitful caps, but I call them ski hats. Mine is green and orange and white.

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From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Dave Wilton
Sent: Sat 8/5/2006 11:07 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: zitful



"Zitful" appears several times in the novel "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" in the
phrase "zitful cap." The book gives no clue as to what it means. There are a
couple of other citations for "zitful cap/hat" on the web--literally a couple.
One website defines it as a ski hat, but I don't know what stock to place in
this.

It's clearly unrelated to zit = pimple. (There are many uses of "zitful" meaning
pimply.)

Anyone have any clue what the term means and where it may have come from?

--
Dave Wilton
dave at wilton.net
http://www.wordorigins.org

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