[Ads-l] toboggan (as a cap), antedating to ca. 1886

Mon Jan 13 08:22:38 UTC 2025

Bonnie, I love the Bronx tobogganers.

I wondered if "boggan hat" without the "to" ever took off, per the DARE
entry Laurence cited, and it's easy to imagine it being spoken. But there
don't seem to be many in print.

"Boggan" appears in a couple of Instagram captions ("My bald head LOVES a
good boggan hat") and in a number of listings for hats for sale. This
description on the website of a children's clothing store in Texas suggests
that "boggan" is a widely used term: "Beanie, boggan, tobbagan.. whatever
you call it, this cable knit hats features a double pom and will keep your
babe’s head warm all winter long!"

On Poshmark, there are a fair number of "boggan hats" for sale.
(User-generated or suggested tags for the listings include "toboggan,"
"boggin," and "boggan.") Some are listed as Beanie Boggins—plain hats
without a tufted pompom. (Let's not get into "pompon.") Using "boggan hat"
as an Amazon search term brings up both plain beanies and beanies with a
pompom.

A Reddit user reminds readers that a toboggan is another word for toque,
which is of course the Canadian term for this sort of hat. Also on Reddit,
there is a discussion about whether "toboggan," the hat, is a Southern or
Northern or Appalachian term. I suspect you will all appreciate a
well-researched discussion between two Appalachian culture chroniclers in
which one writer knows the term (which, she notes, is not in *Southern
Mountain Speech),* and one does not.

Also in the retail world, "boggan" can be an abbreviation for "toboggan,"
the sled, especially for babies and toddlers. A sled *named* Boggan is the
sidekick of the protagonist of a children's book called *The Wish Tree*.

Bonus from a tribute to an alternate model: "The Mini-Boggan was invented
in 1964 when Eunice Carlin wanted to design a sled that was light and
quick... Toboggan sleds and sleds with runners were all well and good, but
on that hill in front of the school, the real daredevils rode
Mini-Boggans.  Especially the 60-inch models that could hold two or three
kids."

I would not be surprised if "boggan" showed up as a verb.

Incidentally, I stumbled on this, from a list of "200+ Hilarious Grinch
Puns Guaranteed to Make Your Heart Grow Three Sizes":

What's the Grinch's favorite winter accessory? His "who-boggan" hat, of
course.

•

Texa knit boggan (aka "Double Pom Hat"):
https://shopcutiecate.com/products/gray-pom-hat

Homemade Christmas boggan on Poshmark (the maker also spells it "bohgam"):
https://poshmark.com/listing/Christmas-Boggans-5d909aeb2f48316e9846b9d0

Beanie boggin:
https://poshmark.com/listing/Aeropostale-beanie-boggan-5e04ffcade696a083e4b2454

Toque:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheAdventureZone/comments/7pz7oq/for_confused_canadians_when_griffin_says_toboggan/

Southern term?
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/5uuchk/til_southerners_call_knit_hatsbeanies_toboggans/

Appalachian writers:
https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/appalachia-through-my-eye-you-wear-toboggans-on-your-head/

Baby Boggan Sled:
https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/esp-day-glow-baby-boggan-sled-for-toddlers

Mini-Boggan:
https://chuckthewriter.blog/2009/11/30/remembering-the-mini-boggan/

The Wish Tree: https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/the-wish-tree

Grinch: https://punspedia.com/grinch-puns/

On Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 6:21 PM John Baker <
0000192d2eeb9639-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> When I was a child in south central Kentucky in the 1960s and 1970s, the
> only word I knew for these was “togi.” I’m not sure of the spelling, but it
> rhymes with “yogi.” I have never encountered the word anywhere else.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> > On Jan 7, 2025, at 12:05 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake <
> b.taylorblake at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > As a native North Carolinian, I sometimes feel the need to stick up
> > for the often-mocked "toboggan" as a thing you wear on your head in
> > winter. This regionalism (Midwest, Southeast) has shown up on the list
> > before, but I can't find that anyone has gone looking for early
> > usages.
> >
> > OED has pushed back the standalone "toboggan," with the meaning of a
> > knit cap (originally with a sort of "tail"), to 1907. (The solitary
> > "toboggan" for hat was preceded by "toboggan hat" and "toboggan cap.")
> >
> > You'll find some earlier examples below.
> >
> > I should mention, though, that not all of the following are slam-dunks
> > for standalone "toboggans" as hats. I can't rule out that at least one
> > or two of these appearances aren't shorthand for "toboggan suits,"
> > "toboggan costumes," "toboggan jackets," and the like, though I think
> > that those abbreviations might have been very rare. (Tobogganing seems
> > to have become a big thing in northern climes in about 1885.)
> >
> > Although predominantly popular in winter, early toboggans (hats) were
> > all-year things. Babies seem to have been early adopters of toboggans:
> > millinery shops were selling toboggans (even lace ones) for small
> > children as early as 1887. At the same time, their mothers were
> > wearing a style of "crush hat" known as a toboggan in the warmer
> > months.
> >
> > -- Bonnie
> >
> > ------------------------
> >
> > All the best people down that way are now wearing toboggans. ["Of
> > Interest to Buffalo Tobogganists," The Buffalo Evening News, 9 January
> > 1886, page unnumbered, but presumably the third;
> >
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-buffalo-news-wearing-toboggans-hats/162409019/
> .
> > Originally published in the Detroit Evening Journal.]
> >
> > A very handsomely decorated team of black horses were attached to a
> > double cutter and wore little toboggans between their ears, ornamented
> > with ribbons. ["Elegant Equipages," Daily Globe (Saint Paul,
> > Minnesota), 5 February 1886, p. 1;
> >
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-saint-paul-globe-toboggans-on-horses/162406262/
> .]
> >
> > Babies lace toboggans are the latest novelties in the millinery
> > stores. [Monmouth (Illinois) Review, 29 April 1887, unnumbered page,
> > but presumably fourth;
> >
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-monmouth-review-babies-lace-toboggan/162446763/
> .]
> >
> > KNIT GOODS
> > Toboggans and Hoods in all new designs.
> > [In an advertisement in The Quincy (Illinois) Herald, 22 December
> > 1887, p. 8; via newspaperarchive.com.]
> >
> > The plug hat rage has died out altogether and the young bloods are
> > thinking of wearing toboggans. ["Additional Local," The Journal (Falls
> > City, Nebraska), 23 December 1887, page unnumbered, but presumably the
> > eighth;
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-falls-city-journal-toboggan-hat-1/162409319/
> .]
> >
> > WOULD like the acquaintance of young lady dressed in red, wore
> > toboggan, who loaned gent opera-glass Sunday afternoon at three
> > o'clock performance. [Advertisement in The Enquirer (Cincinnati), 13
> > February 1888, p. 8;
> >
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-toboggan-hat/162406413/
> .]
> >
> > No one need wear Toboggans or Sunbonnets during the Hot Summer days
> > when you can buy Straw Hats at 25, 30, 40, 50 & 75 cents each. [In an
> > advertisement in The Frontier (O'Neill City, Nebraska). The Library of
> > Congress says that this appeared in the 25 April 1889 issue of that
> > newspaper;
> https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2010270509/1889-04-25/ed-1/seq-8/
> .]
> >
> > How that boy suffered! The younger boy, who wore a toboggan and a
> > melancholy expression, was soon affected in a like manner. ["Chat and
> > Comment," Indiana (Pennsylvania) County Gazette, 9 December 1891, p.
> > 4;
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indiana-gazette-toboggan-hat-129/162407671/
> .]
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
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