coonskin cap
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈkʊnˌskɪn kæp/
- Archaic
:
gorra de piel de mapache
- A genuine coonskin cap sat on his head with the tail dangling down the side of his face.
- wore a coonskin cap
Examples
-
A woman dressed in a coonskin cap and shooting gloves with long ribbons of brown fringe looks at us and says, "Howdy."
Fiction book (1999) -
So much hair, you look like you're wearing a coonskin cap.
-
"Yep," confirmed Molly, taking off her coonskin cap.
Fiction book (1993) -
The Mountain Man Society president, topped with a coonskin cap, questioned him with keen, squinting regard.
Fiction book (1996) -
However, the real Boone never wore a coonskin cap (Boone 37).
Academic text (2014) -
Others believed that coonass was derived from the name given to Andrew Jackson's Tennessee volunteers when they came to New Orleans wearing their coonskin caps.
Academic text (1998) -
The difference is, most people don't go to AskMe and post, "Hey, I'm sporting this really cool coonskin cap—
Blog text (2) -
Their blazing red hair stood out in defiant little spikes all over their heads, except when they were wearing their Davy Crockett coonskin caps, a present from Grandma Starbuck.
Fiction book (1993) -
He wore a coonskin cap with the tail hanging down his back while hiking in the woods.
-
The boy proudly displayed his new coonskin cap, just like the ones worn by frontier explorers.
Synonyms
175
1.0
A soft hat that fits the head, often with a small brim
3
1.3
A hat made from animal fur to keep your head warm
3
8.9
A hat made from soft brown fur, popular in the past
3
8.8
A hat with a brim that protects the head from sun or rain
2
9.4
A cap made from raccoon fur with the tail hanging down the back
1
8.0
A tall fur hat worn by soldiers as part of a formal uniform
A Russian fur hat with ear flaps worn in cold weather
Surface Forms
Morphology
coonskin + cap
The meaning is directly compositional: it denotes a cap made from a raccoon’s skin — 'coonskin' (skin of a raccoon) + 'cap' (hat). Even if 'coonskin' as one word is somewhat dialectal or less frequent, the animal-skin + garment pattern is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the meaning.
Etymology
The noun coonskin cap comes from a simple, literal image: people made the hat from the skin of a 'raccoon', so the words coon and skin name what it is and the long tail often hung down the back. That's why coonskin cap today means 'a hat made from raccoon skin' or a playful, old-fashioned pioneer hat.