Entry: shako (n.)
In context: See previous previous previous previous previous.
Definition: A military cap in the shape of a truncated cone, with a peak and either a plume or a ball or ‘pom-pom’. (Not now worn by British soldiers.)
Other: This hat/cap makes me laugh. Here it is.
Fascinating etymology: < Magyar csákó, short for csákó süveg, more correctly csákos süveg peaked cap (csákos being an adj. < csák peak, believed by Hungarian scholars to be < German zacken point, spike).
The word has been adopted into several European languages; the French schako may be the proximate source. While the shako was still worn in the British army, the pronunciation was /ˈʃækəʊ/ among officers, but /ʃəˈkuː/ in the ranks.
SNOOT score: 1
Page: 1029
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, Wikipedia
Definitive Jest is a vocabulary-building and SNOOT-approved word-of-the-day blog centered around David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
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