What do you call a knitted winter cap? A beanie? A toboggan? A stocking hat? Grant’s Great Knitted Hat Survey traces the different terms for this cold weather accessory used across the country. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Knitted Cap Names”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett.
Martha, when I got to California, I thought I was going insane. People were talking about beanies, but I’ll be darned if I saw anybody wearing a propeller cap.
You didn’t like mine?
No, I was envisioning a beanie being this little kind of skullcap thing with maybe having a propeller, not like multicolored with like a triangular panel.
Sure, that’s what I think of when I think of a beanie. But here in California and on the West Coast, beanie refers to a knit sock hat.
I think it’s a younger term.
That’s probably. I mean, I’m younger than me anyway.
Okay.
In your 20s and younger. And so there are regional terms for this throughout North America.
Who knew? In the South, maybe you know this, being a nice Southern lady. Did you call them toboggans?
No, we use toboggan to mean sled, which you wouldn’t put on your head.
Not often, no. So toboggan is a term mainly in the American South for a sock hat. I call them sock hats in Missouri or a stocking hat or a cap.
Toboggan is often shorted toboggan. In Canada, they’re called a toque or a toque.
Really? Yeah, which is interesting because it comes from a French word. And in cooking, it’s that particular chef’s hat, the tall white one with the puppy top.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right. But they use it for a wide variety of hats. Just any, but a lot of times it’s the knitted cap.
The other thing that I found that the sock hat and stocking hat that I use are primarily in the Midwest, around the Great Lakes, and in the Northeast. And so I was just really interested to find that there was this difference that I didn’t know anything about.
So I made a survey.
Online?
Online. You can find it at waywordradio.org slash hats. It’s called, what’s that on your head?
No, it’s called the Great Knitted Hat Survey, I believe.
Oh, that sounds so august. And I’ve got three pictures with a variety of terms that you might describe this hat with.
It takes just a minute to fill out. You record your location, and I’m compiling the data in a spreadsheet, and I’ll put that out for everyone so we can see exactly where in the country people are calling this hat a beanie, where they’re calling it a toboggan, where they’re calling it a sock hat or a stocking cap.
I know this kind of thing gets you all hot and bothered.
I know my face is flush. I’m sweating. Sorry for that.
Well, go take the survey, and you can always call us about any other aspect of language. Call us and tell us about it, 877-929-9673, or send it an email to words@waywordradio.org.
In Vermont the term toque is still in use, but as my Dad was in the Navy during WW2, I grew up calling them watch caps. We also called them ski caps.
In California, spreading from naval bases throughout the state (and, says my research, from all WWII West Coast naval bases) during and post WWII, watch caps; more often wool caps now. Another term that emanated from the Navy was zories (from Japanese zorii), which they were always called growing up in the 60s, and what they were labeled in stores. The rarer terms were “thongs,” first, and “sandals,” (or beach sandals or beach thongs). As the population has grown, they’ve become ‘flip-flops.’ I was born in 1955, and didn’t hear “flip-flop” until well into adulthood, 30’s maybe. I regard “zories” as the correct California term, with “flip-flop” identifying one as a foreigner, as with “Frisco,” or “San Fran.” or, more recently, “Cali.”
San Francisco, to native Californians, (Northern, at least), is “The City.” Same with “Cali.” If you say that, you’re not from there.
These days many native born folks from Cali wear flip-flops when they go to San Fran. The other vernacular seems to now mean a multi-generation Californian.
Culture is language and food. I don’t care for the changing of California-speak among native born Californians, especially 2nd or later generation. I resist the assimilation, the fading of my culture.
As a Californian born and lifer, with a Navy dad and two Navy brothers, closest port being Port Hueneme, and as a one-year adolescent Sea Coast Cadet, I had never heard the term “watch cap” before. It makes sense though. And as I recall, the only color you could get them in was Navy blue. Most of us in Ventura County called it a “beanie.” I’m also familiar with zories and thongs. And you’re right about “Cali,” that just grates on my native ears! If they want to shorten it why not the proper “Calif” since the root word of California is from the Arab “Kalif/Calif/Kalifate/Caliphate” family.
The other thing about knit caps in California: WHY?! For that cold night the temp drops below 55?!