Sunday Rest: unhat. Word Not To Use Today.

Unhat has been a word for quite a long time, but until now its meaning has been, reasonably enough, the action of taking off one's hat.

But now suddenly the unhat is the accessory of the season. 

What is one? 

An unhat is a decoration for the head which isn't actually, well, a hat.

I don't know exactly where the perimeters of the unhat lie, but examples include hairbands, large hair clips, large bows, wisps of veil, and even those horrid stretchy little jersey turbans.

Would a knotted handkerchief count as an unhat? 

I don't know, to be honest, but I'd just love to see them worn at the next society wedding.

Anyway, unhat is a silly word for this sort of thing. These things aren't un-hats but not-quite-hats.

Actually, I like that....a notquiteahat? A notahat? 

No...they're too difficult to pronounce and understand.

A nottahat?

Oh dear, no, that's a monstrosity.

Ah well. All these things do have names already, don't they.

I can only suggest that we use them.

Word Not To Use Today: unhat. The Old English form of the word hat was hætt. The word goes right back to the Latin cassis, which means helmet.