Comments (22)

1. Woo! First…

   posted by Seth on 3-2-2010 at 7:54 am

2. I was able to get the answer from the last 3 items, but I couldn’t figure out how the hat/cap factored in. I’ve never heard of a toque in my life.

   And Sandy, I don’t care how really really bad people think the rebuses (rebusi?) are, I love them and wish we had them more often!

   posted by NukeGuy on 3-2-2010 at 9:35 am

3. I also LOVE the rebuses… but likewise never heard of a toque. So I was trying to fit “alpaca” in there where the llama was… I have failed again.

   posted by Rob on 3-2-2010 at 9:45 am

4. Having grown up in the south, I’d never heard of “toque” either until the days of Bob & Doug MacKenzie on SCTV. I remember looking it up to get the spelling back then, since I assumed it was “tuuk” or something similar.

   posted by Sandy Wood on 3-2-2010 at 9:49 am

5. A toque is a chef’s hat. You know, the tall white, pleated one? That doesn’t look anything like a toque.

   posted by Ruth on 3-2-2010 at 9:54 am

6. A toque is a hat without a brim.

   posted by Kate on 3-2-2010 at 10:02 am

7. Ruth has obviously not spent winter in Canada :)

   posted by mathesond on 3-2-2010 at 10:08 am

8. Kate’s description is accurate. Most uses of “toque” in North America refer to a brimless, knit hat (like the one shown in the image). Of course, they’re more common in cold-weather areas.

   A chef’s hat is one VARIETY of toque, but the terms are not interchangeable (regardless of what Wikipedia says).

   posted by Sandy Wood on 3-2-2010 at 10:41 am

9. Geez guys…it’s “tuque,” as in “Nice tuque, eh?” From our northern neighbors and all?

   posted by Seth on 3-2-2010 at 11:09 am

10. Like NukeGuy, I was able to guess the answer from the last three items. Good job, Sandy, for introducing us southerners to essential Canadian terms!

    posted by Kelsey on 3-2-2010 at 11:11 am

11. Are you kidding? We just had the winter olympics, and you didn’t learn the word toque? Great attention span, America! LOL, everyone in our great city was wearing one. You guys need to pay more attention to your northern neighbors. What do you guys call them? (I’m actually wearing one right now)

    posted by Nicole on 3-2-2010 at 11:22 am

12. We call them ‘toboggan’s’ or ‘knit caps’ down in the south. Also haven’t heard of a toque before. Good information to store away though :-) Gotta love mental_floss!

    posted by Steven on 3-2-2010 at 11:48 am

13. We call them caps, knit hats, or sometimes toboggans. If it has ear flaps, it’s a Jayne cap.

    CAPTCHA tells me, though, that they are “eyesores alone.”

    posted by Lugh on 3-2-2010 at 11:49 am

14. Wow, it seems so odd to hear people say that they’ve never heard of a toque. Weird. Toques are pretty much required attire in Canada. I’ve never heard them refered to as toboggans before, though. A toboggan is a sled ’round these parts.

    posted by Colin on 3-2-2010 at 12:14 pm

15. Toque is really common in Canada…I can’t think of any other way to refer to those winter hats. The other definitions people had (tall chef’s hat?!?!) were new to me. Amusing how something so common to us is waaaaay different elsewhere.

    Lugh, CAPTCHA tells me that I have “left defended” the toque ;)

    posted by Michaela on 3-2-2010 at 2:44 pm

16. I’m a Southerner also, and Steven’s right, they’re either “toboggans” or “knit caps” down here. I know up north (Canada too), the word “toboggan” means a sled, but down here we just call a sled a sled. But then again, most of us don’t own sleds because it snows so rarely

    posted by NukeGuy on 3-2-2010 at 4:31 pm

17. I got it (woo!), and I’m in the South US too. It’s not a word we use a lot down here (or… at all) but I knew it thanks to my Yankee friends :)

    posted by Nicole on 3-2-2010 at 5:32 pm

18. Yeah I’m from Alabama and here it’s a toboggan… but I grew up a huge Bob and Doug fan; even have the album featuring their version of the 12 days of Christmas… “FIVE GOLDEN TOQUES!”

    posted by Dara on 3-2-2010 at 5:39 pm

19. I have to chime in…I’m originally from Canada (where EVERYONE knows what a toque is) and have spent many years in the South where NO ONE knows, and thinks a toboggan is a hat (I razz my best friend terribly about that one – she had no idea it was a sled!).

    recaptcha: the covered
    (how appropriate for a hat discussion!)

    posted by C on 3-2-2010 at 6:14 pm

20. hatty lamaking pigeon

    duh!

    posted by Jeff on 3-2-2010 at 8:08 pm

21. I know the word “toque” from Ratatouille (the movie) but I would never have associated that word with the picture.

    The head chef (Skinner) grabs Linguini’s toque thinking Remy (the rat)is under it.

    recaptcha: that mindful (I guess that was me watching the movie)

    posted by LadyTaz on 3-2-2010 at 9:28 pm

22. In my part of the world we call knit hats knit hats. What a crazy concept. Toque has to be totally made up.

    posted by Shannon on 3-3-2010 at 9:14 pm

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