Toque

The spelling (pronounced /tuk/) is often used for the tuque, an originally French-Canadian woolen hat worn in winter. This "fashion" originated when coureurs des bois kept their woollen nightcaps on for warmth during cold winter days. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary regards the two words as being etymologically unrelated, with the "toque" spelling being as a result of assimilation.

Hat Definition

Cap Definition

Coif Definition

Yarmulke / Keepah

Clothing Definitions

A Narrow-Brimmed Hat of Medieval and Renaissance Europe

The toque is defined by what its brim does not do. It has a narrow brim or no brim at all, so unlike a top hat or a sun hat it offers no wide shade around the head; the shape is carried by the crown and the fit rather than by a spreading edge. Toques were popular from the 13th to the 16th century in Europe, especially France, a span of roughly three hundred years in which the brimless or narrow-brimmed form was ordinary fashionable dress. That long period matters for reading pictures and costume: a toque in a late medieval or Renaissance French setting is not an oddity but the normal headwear of its time, and its lack of a wide brim is a period feature rather than a missing part.

The name has its own history. The term toque comes from the Spanish word toca. A traveller meeting the word in English, French or Spanish sources is meeting the same family of terms for a close head covering, and the pronunciation in English use is tok, with a long o sound. Keeping the pronunciation in mind helps in speech, because the written word sits very close to another hat name, the tuque, which sounds different and means something different. In written shopping, museum and costume contexts the two are regularly mixed up, so the definition of the toque is best fixed by its period and its brim: European, 13th to 16th century, narrow-brimmed or brimless.

The Toque-Blanche and the Separate Story of the Tuque

One toque is still common, and it is the form most people picture today: the toque-blanche, the standard chef's hat. The tall white hat of the professional kitchen keeps the old name in daily use long after the toque's centuries as European fashion ended. Its setting is work rather than ceremony, but the naming is continuous, a brimless hat worn on the head in a trade where head covering also serves the practical purpose of keeping hair out of food. When the word toque appears in a modern kitchen context, it almost always means this chef's hat, while in historical and costume contexts it means the earlier European hat; the period of the surrounding text usually tells the reader which sense is intended.

The tuque must be kept apart from both senses. The spelling pronounced tuk is often used for the tuque, an originally French-Canadian woollen hat worn in winter. That fashion originated when coureurs des bois kept their woollen nightcaps on for warmth during cold winter days. A tuque is therefore a warm knitted winter cap, made for Canadian cold, while a toque is the European hat and the chef's hat that descends in name from it. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary regards the two words as etymologically unrelated, with the toque spelling applied to the tuque being a result of assimilation, that is, of one word being reshaped in spelling toward a familiar-looking neighbour. A touque is also another name for a beanie in Canada. The safe rule is simple: tok for the toque of Europe and the kitchen, tuk for the winter tuque of Canada, and the garments themselves, a brimless historic hat or tall chef's hat on one side and a warm woollen winter cap on the other, are as different as their sounds.