Keep it under your hat
Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 10:45 am
I subscribe to the weekly World Wide Words e-newsletter edited by the linguist and etymologist Michael Quinion. Amongst other things, he does much to dispel urban myths around derivations of slang and idiomatic expressions and, in particular, supposed acronyms, which persist with rather worrying tenacity (eg "posh").
My attention was drawn this week to a follow up to a piece he published last week on the expression "keep it under your hat". This was prompted by a daft claim linking it to the ubiquitous mediaeval archers, but his research suggested that it had a fairly literal derivation based simply on keeping something in one's head rather than writing it down or blabbing about it. He received, amongst others, the following reply:
Tony Sharp presented yet a third origin: "In the City of London the popular etymology is that when the new Lord Mayor is admitted to office, he is presented with the symbols - the mace, sword, and seals of office - in the Silent Ceremony. The swordbearer wears a Muscovy fur hat which has a small pocket in which he keeps the seals safe." Richard Martin, the current swordbearer to the Lord Mayor, a post introduced in 1420, confirms the basic facts: "I keep the Lord Mayor's key to the Christ's Hospital Seal in a pocket inside my hat, a traditional medieval design which implies the wearer is a man of importance (times change). The one I wear was created in 1975 and is of sable. Following the Silent Ceremony I pass the key to the outgoing Lord Mayor, who passes it to the incoming Lord Mayor, who returns it to me with the instruction 'keep it under your hat'."
Interesting where we turn up, eh?
My attention was drawn this week to a follow up to a piece he published last week on the expression "keep it under your hat". This was prompted by a daft claim linking it to the ubiquitous mediaeval archers, but his research suggested that it had a fairly literal derivation based simply on keeping something in one's head rather than writing it down or blabbing about it. He received, amongst others, the following reply:
Tony Sharp presented yet a third origin: "In the City of London the popular etymology is that when the new Lord Mayor is admitted to office, he is presented with the symbols - the mace, sword, and seals of office - in the Silent Ceremony. The swordbearer wears a Muscovy fur hat which has a small pocket in which he keeps the seals safe." Richard Martin, the current swordbearer to the Lord Mayor, a post introduced in 1420, confirms the basic facts: "I keep the Lord Mayor's key to the Christ's Hospital Seal in a pocket inside my hat, a traditional medieval design which implies the wearer is a man of importance (times change). The one I wear was created in 1975 and is of sable. Following the Silent Ceremony I pass the key to the outgoing Lord Mayor, who passes it to the incoming Lord Mayor, who returns it to me with the instruction 'keep it under your hat'."
Interesting where we turn up, eh?