shovel hat
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.46 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A broad-brimmed style of hat, varying widely in detail, generally turned up at the sides and projecting in front like a shovel, formerly worn by some clergy.
Informal
noun
During the period of the popularity of shovel hats as clerical hats: any ecclesiastic, particularly one in traditional garb.
Colloquial; Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "At one period, our ministers, were distinguished and held in contempt for their Puritanism and Methodism; but now they excite risibility, by the use of the "fire shovel hat"."
- "I soon learned that the fat, well-fed , and well dressed persons, with large shovel hats, were priests […] ."
- "[O]ne is bound to speak the truth as far as one knows it, whether one mounts a cap and bells or a shovel hat; and a deal of disagreeable matter must come out in the course of such an undertaking."
- "They touched their caps to the curé, who removed his shovel hat and bowed low, without, however, withdrawing his eyes from the book."
- "Then came a picture of a cheerful and corpulent ecclesiastic in a shovel hat, sitting opposite a very thin European, and the inscription: "Lunch with Fra Cristofero at Rosario"."
- "The good bishop of Cloyne took the veil of the temple out of his shovel hat […]."
Etymology
From the shape. Apparently originally "fire shovel hat" or "fire-shovel-hat" based on a fire shovel.