poke bonnet
- noun
- Archaic
:
bonete
- In the period drama, every lady wore a poke bonnet as part of her costume.
Examples
-
The museum displayed a beautiful silk poke bonnet from the Victorian era.
-
She tied the ribbon of her poke bonnet securely beneath her chin before stepping outside.
-
The poke bonnet was a fashionable accessory in the 1800s.
-
She wore a beautiful poke bonnet to the garden party.
-
The young girl wore a lovely poke bonnet decorated with colorful ribbons as she played outside.
-
During the historical reenactment, many women donned poke bonnets to showcase 19th-century fashion.
-
She adjusted her poke bonnet to shield her face from the sun while walking through the garden.
Synonyms
19
4.1
A hat for women or children tied under the chin that covers the ears and back of the head
Surface Forms
Morphology
poke + bonnet
The head noun 'bonnet' clearly signals this is a type of hat, so a B1 learner who knows 'bonnet' will likely infer the MWE names a kind of hat. However, the modifier 'poke' has an archaic/lexical history (and common B1 senses like 'to prod') that do not transparently convey the specific projecting-brim shape, so the full meaning is not predictable from the parts alone. Because the category is clear but the distinctive shape and historical sense of 'poke' are not, the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Poke bonnet is a women's hat with a deep, projecting front that was tied under the chin. The word poke once meant a 'pouch' or small bag, and because the hat's front stuck out like a pouch, the name poke bonnet came to mean that particular 'hat'.