Just what is toboggan?

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Tobogan, toboggan, tobogin, et. al.

I've heard of the word and always thought it referred to a kind of sledge or sled for playing in snow. But on television a reporter was saying the teenager was wearing a tobogan (sp.). Can a tobogan also be a kind of cap or hat? Dictionaries only say a tobogan is a kind of sled or something. Maybe I don't know how to spell it.

Thanks

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Many people refer to the thick, knitted cap which peole wear in the winter-time as a toboggan. In particular, i have heard this in the American South, and i have also heard the usage in Canada, as well.

http://cache.lionbrand.com/stores/lionbrand/pictures/klw-knitcapa.jpg

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Note: A toboggan is, of course, a type of sled (or sledge, as is the usage in British English). Technically, i suppose, you should call the knit cap a "toboggan hat," but colloquially, people also refer to the cap simply as "a toboggan."

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Right, Setanta. Always wanted one of these:

http://www.mrtoys.com/sleds/pics/paris-6ft-super-wooden-toboggan-sled.jpg

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Setanta wrote:

Many people refer to the thick, knitted cap which people wear in the winter-time as a toboggan. In particular, i have heard this in the American South, and i have also heard the usage in Canada, as well.

I don't know what they might call it in the American south, Set, but I'd be mighty surprised if you have ever heard a 'toque' referred to as a toboggan in Canada.

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colloquial - Australia
sledge - 1. (sport, esp cricket) attempt to break the concentration of a person batting by abuse, needling, etc. 2. criticise severely.

ie setanta how's your wife and my children?

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JTT wrote:

I don't know what they might call it in the American south, Set, but I'd be mighty surprised if you have ever heard a 'toque' referred to as a toboggan in Canada.

What would or would not surprise you is a matter of complete indifference to me. I will note, however, with no small amount of hilarity, that you seem to believe that any one usage by Canadians can be extrapolated to all Canadians, and declared to be an exclusive usage.

Thanks for the laughs . . .

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Setanta wrote:

JTT wrote:
I don't know what they might call it in the American south, Set, but I'd be mighty surprised if you have ever heard a 'toque' referred to as a toboggan in Canada.

What would or would not surprise you is a matter of complete indifference to me. I will note, however, with no small amount of hilarity, that you seem to believe that any one usage by Canadians can be extrapolated to all Canadians, and declared to be an exclusive usage.

Thanks for the laughs . . .

Well, obviously not complete indifference, Set.

I never stated that "one usage by Canadians can be extrapolated to all Canadians". That came from your digits, typing furiously but indifferently away here, instead of having those same digits spend a wee bit of time researching to prove your point.

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My point was proved when i pointed out that i had heard the usage in Canada--i said that because, surprise, surprise (you remember, the quality of your experience to which i am indifferent), i have heard Canadians use the term to mean a hat.

You are the one who is attempting to insist by inference that all Canadians use, and only ever use, toque to describe a hat of that type. Therefore, you have the burden of proof.

I repeat, i remain completely indifferent to what would or would not surprise you. I am not indifferent to your stupid assertions, though--if only for the entertainment value.

Your last post was a very poor effort, even by your pathetically low standards.

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Setanta wrote:

My point was proved when i pointed out that i had heard the usage in Canada--i said that because, surprise, surprise (you remember, the quality of your experience to which i am indifferent), i have heard Canadians use the term to mean a hat.

Methinks you are mistaken, Set. You must have been stoned or drunk or you simply misunderstood. Not to worry, it happens, laddie.

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I don't take strong drink, and have never smoked marijuana while in Canada.

It is even more hilarious to read that you think you have the right to tell me what i have or have not heard.

As i said before, this is even below your already low, low standards.

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By the way, brainiac, the most common form in Canada is tuque, and that is the French-Canadian form. Now i'll have the opportunity to be amused by your attempt to claim that the French in Canada have no right to spell or pronounce the word differently than you have decreed from your seat on high.

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I've never heard it called anything but a watch cap. Honest. But what the hell do we Yankees know?

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We had a family toboggan (damned if I'm sure how to spell it) when I was a kid. Homemade at that. If you want to send four children to an icy death at one go, there's no surer way to do it.

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sez the online etymology dictionary...

Quote:

"long, flat-bottomed sled," 1829, from Canadian Fr. tabagane, from Algonquian (probably Micmac) tobakun "a sled." The verb is recorded from 1846. As Amer.Eng. colloquial for a type of long woolen cap, it is recorded from 1929 (earlier toboggan cap, 1928), presumably because one worse such a cap while tobogganing.

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Merry Andrew wrote:

I've never heard it called anything but a watch cap. Honest. But what the hell do we Yankees know?

I had heard it called a toboggan, but only in the American South--so that's why i perked up and noticed it when i heard the usage in Canada. New Englanders probably call it a watch cap because of their association with the sea.

(Actually, i'm technically a Yankee, because i was born in New York--but i understand the term is applied to everyone north and east of Bayonne.)

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I would also note that i heard the usage in Ohio--there's a lot of strange usages in Ohio.

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Setanta wrote:

By the way, brainiac, the most common form in Canada is tuque, and that is the French-Canadian form. Now i'll have the opportunity to be amused by your attempt to claim that the French in Canada have no right to spell or pronounce the word differently than you have decreed from your seat on high.

You're getting way off topic, laddie. Of course there are different spellings. There are almost certainly different pronunciations as French is a different language than English.

But that doesn't change the fact that you're ill-informed, Set. If your idea had any merit, and remember, you're the one who has made the claim that a toque can be called a toboggan, then it seems clear that you'd be able to find a reference to it somewhere.

But if instead of finding out the truth, you'd rather just be cantankerous, by all means, be my guest. That has always seemed to be your stance with repect to language issues. Actually a lot of issues.

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I'm not a laddie. There can be no greater height of arrogance than to tell me that i'm ill-informed when i simply note that i have heard the usage in Canada. Once again, i have nothing which i need prove, because i've only offered anecdotal evidence, and never claimed that it was anything else.

Now if you want to claim that "toque" is the only Canadian usage, you're going to have to be able to dismiss "tuque" as a common usage, and you're still left with proving your claim that "toboggan" is never used in Canada to describe a hat.

As always, though, you're long on palaver, and short on evidence.

EDIT: You can keep running your mouth--but you aren't going to get me to play your stupid game. If you want to run out and find proof for your claim, help yourself--but you're an idiot if you think you can force me to run around and find references for you just because you take yet another opportunity to atttack me because of your puerile obsession. Have fun, Bubba.

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Not being very bright like some people here I had to goggle for a definition and found
"In Southern American English toboggan can also refer to the type of hat known elsewhere as a tuque or a ski hat. Sometimes this is shortened to boggan or boggan cap."
ps. You can call me laddie if you need to do so, I don't mind.

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Just what is toboggan?

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