# What exactly is a toboggan? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 9, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616 "2001-08-09T16:35:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Von\_Erich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@Von\_Erich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Von_Erich)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/1 "2001-08-09T16:35:40Z")
Why do people in the south, I live in north Texas, call those knit caps worn in winter toboggans? According to Webster it is only a sled. Do people do this elswhere? The worst part is a lot of people pronounce it TOE-boggin. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/2 "2001-08-09T16:52:23Z")
I’m not sure if I understand your question. Here is my perspective, as a Canadian Toboggan = a snow sled. Used by kids as something to slide down a hill. Not to be confused with a “sleigh” which is something that would have been pulled by horses. That knit cap you wear when on one (or when its just plain cold) = a **Toque** Pronounced **too-que** ---
**Author:** ![Von\_Erich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@Von\_Erich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Von_Erich)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/3 "2001-08-09T17:12:53Z")
Thats my point. People here call what you just called a toque, toboggans. I wanted to know why and do people do that in other areas of the United States. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/4 "2001-08-09T17:36:58Z")
Really? I thought you just got a little mixed up in wording your OP, but I was the one 🙂 The actually call the things you wear a _toboggan_? I had no idea. Heh. Hard to believe we all speak the same language (or at least are supposed too). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Von\_Erich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@Von\_Erich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Von_Erich)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/5 "2001-08-09T17:41:17Z")
I did word that kind of funny, it sounded better in my head. Yes, they do call it that. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/6 "2001-08-09T17:46:58Z")
This drives me absolutely crazy. When I was enjoying a happy childhood in Pennsylvania, a toboggan was a wooden sled with runners that one used to sled down modest hills, aiming at the cat. Don’t worry, it was a fast cat. When I moved as an adult to Indiana, I met people who insisted on wearing toboggans on their heads- woolen caps or ski masks- and although you can still aim these at the cat, it just isn’t the same. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/7 "2001-08-09T17:55:46Z")
Originally, they were called “toboggan caps,” and it was shortened to just “toboggan.” The word “toboggan” apparently is some American Indian word for “sled.” ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/8 "2001-08-09T17:56:09Z")
Well, this Georgia boy can vouch for Tex - We also call it a “tobaggon” (pronounced tuh-bah-gun for us). Haven’t a clue as to why though. It was also a wooden sled **without** runners. The kind with a flat bottom made out of wooden slats. ---
**Author:** ![Ennui](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ennui/32/3396_2.png) [@Ennui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ennui)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/9 "2001-08-09T17:56:16Z")
Adding to the confusion: Growing up in Ohio a toboggan was a wooded sled without runners, if it had the metal runners it was just called a sled. And the knit caps were called, in my family, shopkahs(sp?). But then again my parents both came from eastern Europe witch might explain that. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/10 "2001-08-09T18:12:49Z")
The first time I heard “toboggan” as a hat was in North Carolina. Growing up in Michigan it was a “toque”. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/11 "2001-08-09T18:45:52Z")
Where I grew up - Maryland, Seattle and North Dakota - knit hats were just that - hats. Nothin’ special. I occasionally heard ski masks referred to as balaclavas. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/12 "2001-08-09T19:08:15Z")
It’s odd that the use of “toboggan” (or more lazily “'boggan”) to refer to a wool cap only caught on in the South. Maybe it’s because we don’t have many wooden sleds down here. In the North, using “toboggan” to mean cap might cause confusion. “Don’t forget to bring your _toboggan_,” as used in the South would be understood to refer to the cap. If the “cap” usage were common up North, the same sentence would require clarification. (Should I bring my cap or my sled?) I wonder why Webster’s doesn’t include a reference to the regional usage of the word “toboggan?” Judging from the posts in this thread, the usage is common from Texas to the Carolinas, and as far north as Indiana. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/13 "2001-08-09T19:37:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OxyMoron \* > \*\*Where I grew up - Maryland, Seattle and North Dakota - knit hats were just that - hats. Nothin’ special. I occasionally heard ski masks referred to as balaclavas. \*\* Balaclava got its start in England because British troops wore them in the Crimean War, near the village of … Balaclava. The OED’s #3 definition of “toboggan” is “a long woolen cap”, dating back to 1929. “Toboggan” is related to various Canadian Indian words which describe something like a toboggan. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/14 "2001-08-09T20:07:35Z")
I believe the toque and the toboggan cap are slightly different beasts. Toques have a more dome-like shape, whereas toboggan caps are more conical form. And the [Toboggan](http://www.ntsled.com/product.htm) sled is a very long, flat bottomed, runnerless downhill sled designed for up to eight people to ride simultaneously. It’s typically little more than a flexible sheet of wood or fiberglas that scrolls up in the front. They’re very hard to control, especially when they get up good speed, and on old, crusty, icy snow on even moderately sloped hillsides, they can achieve quite frightening speeds! Typically, in fresh snow, a _toboggan run_ is carved out by the first few brave souls. It’s basically a rut in the snow that the toboggan will follow on subsequent runs, and since the snow in the rut is compressed it quickly gets icy and makes for even faster speeds than the first few trips. Tobogganing was great fun during the two winters I spent in New Hampshire as a child. ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/15 "2001-08-09T20:28:45Z")
How to make an [Old Fashioned Toboggan Cap](http://www.thefamily.com/countrycottage/knit/tobogganhat.html). ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/16 "2001-08-09T20:34:06Z")
“Behold the toboggan. Suicide sled.” - Calvin Growing up in NH and Western Mass, the only use for that word was, as has been stated before, for the long runnerless sled that sat some six to eight people. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by BobT_ > **The OED’s #3 definition of “toboggan” is “a long woolen cap”, dating back to 1929** Interesting… seems like the OED is talking about those long conical caps rather than the short, round knit caps more commonly seen 'round these here parts. I don’t know why people would wear those while tobogganing, though - seems you’d whip the poor soul behind you in the face with it. **Ennui** - _shapka_ is the Russian word for ‘cap’ and almost surely has cognates in the other Slavic languages. ---
**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/17 "2001-08-09T20:51:35Z")
Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary does have an entry under **toboggan** for the cap usage: > [@](#): > > 4 _or_ toboggan cap : STOCKING CAP The definition under **stocking cap** is: > [@](#): > > a knitted cone-shaped cap made usu. long with a tassel or pompon at the point and worn esp. for winter sports or play ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/18 "2001-08-09T21:14:34Z")
> [@](#): > > But then again my parents both came from eastern Europe witch might explain that. I thought the Catholic church Auto-Da-Fé’d all the European witches during the Inquisition. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-is-a-toboggan/75616/19 "2001-08-09T23:55:21Z")
[irony]A favorite poster of mine at snopes, wrote me in the last few months asking about this, as she lives in NC.[/irony] I think this is what I told her. Mathews, _Dictionary of Americanisms_ shows from the 1902 Sears catalogue: “Toboggan Caps or Toques.” They had all their bases covered. And from the 1928 Chicago Tribune: "Women and children in winter wore toboggan caps which wrapped two or three times around the neck and hung about a yard down the back. He also adds that _tobagan_ is Algonquian for a drag or hand sled. But there is certainly enough anechdotal evidence to say that the term is Southern, rather than New England or “Up NOrth”