Hat
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /hæt/
- Rhymes: -æt
Origin
From Middle English hat, from Old English hæt, hætt ("head-covering, hat"), from Proto-Germanic *hattuz ("hat"), from Proto-Indo-European *kadʰ- ("to guard, cover, care for, protect"). Cognate with North Frisian hat ("hat"), Danish hat ("hat"), Swedish hatt ("hat"), Icelandic hattur ("hat"), Latin cassis ("helmet"), Lithuanian kudas ("bird's crest or tuft"), Avestan (xaoda, "hat"), Welsh caddu ("to provide for, ensure"). Compare also hood.
Full definition of hat
Noun
hat
(plural hats)- A covering for the head, often in the approximate form of a cone or a cylinder closed at its top end, and sometimes having a brim and other decoration.
- (figuratively) A particular role or capacity that a person might fill.
- 1993, Susan Loesser, A Most Remarkable Fella: Frank Loesser and the Guys and Dolls in His Life: A Portrait by His Daughter, Hal Leonard Corporation (2000), ISBN 978-0-634-00927-3, page 121:My mother was wearing several hats in the early fifties: hostess, scout, wife, and mother.
- (figuratively) Any receptacle from which numbers/names are pulled out in a lottery.
- (figuratively, by extension) The lottery or draw itself.We're both in the hat: let's hope we come up against each other.
- (video games) A hat switch.
- 2002, Ernest Pazera, Focus on SDL (page 139)The third type of function allows you to check on the state of the joystick's buttons, axes, hats, and balls.
- (typography, non-standard, rare) = háÄek
- 1997 October 6th, “Patricia V. Lehman†(user name), rec.antiques (Usenet newsgroup), “Re: Unusual Mark – made in Cechoslovakiaâ€, https://groups.google.com/group/rec.antiques/msg/8496fc478c032593?hl=en&dmode=source&output=gplain Message ID: <34390399.BD7@umich.edu>
- I’lll have to leave it up to antiques experts to tell you when objects were marked that way, but I can tell you it’s called a “hacek†(with the hat over the “c†and pronounced “hacheckâ€.) It is used to show that a “c†is pronounced as “ch†and an “s†as “sh.†Sometimes linguists just call it the “hat.â€