Help me in English language!

[Killearn Kitties]

I have always thought that a cap was something with a skip, the kind of thing schoolboys wore in the dim and distant past. I can't find a proper picture, only this kind of thing from a fancy dress site.

[kokopup]

I think that cap and hat are often the same as in baseball cap or hat. I usually look at any head cover as being a HAT and in some cases is also a cap. If you are wearing a Bowler it is always a hat. Same would go for a TOP or Derby Hat. I think more confusing would be the words pants and trousers. It depends on what the purpose is for their use. Like you would never refer to blue jeans as trousers, or you would not refer to the bottom of a TUX as pants, but of course you could and
that would be ok

[Catherinedana]

cap : (a) head covering especially with a visor and no brim (think of the Tweed caps associated with Ireland) (b) : a distinctive head covering emblematic of a position or office, for example a nurse's cap or motorboard

hat: a covering for the head usually having a shaped crown and brim, for example a derby hat or cowboy hat.

Thanks to Merriam Webster!

[Barbara]

I am very grateful that an explanation for pants and trousers is also included- that's another one.
Here everything like a cowboy hat, a Homburg, a trilby and a bowler would also be hats- but baseball caps would never. So the English hat invades the territory of the German cap- but basically it's the same difference

Killearn Karen: what you are talking about- would it be that classical thing made of Harris Tweed that has a short hard visor which is mainly hidden by the rest of the cap?

[Killearn Kitties]

Killearn Karen: what you are talking about- would it be that classical thing made of Harris Tweed that has a short hard visor which is mainly hidden by the rest of the cap?

No Barbara, that is a bunnet!

[Kirsten]

Interesting topic... I always wondered about that pants/trousers thing myself!

Kirsten

[Killearn Kitties]

Well, how interesting. I have always thought that Americans referred to all trousers as pants. I just thought that that was what they called them.

[Edwina's Secretary]

No Barbara, that is a bunnet!

No, no! It's a newsboy cap!

And only men wear trousers. Women wear pants or slacks!

[Daisy and Delilah]

WOW!!! That is a loaded, but fun, question to say the least. The English language has a million different names for the same thing.

I always call something a cap like a baseball cap or a ball cap. There is a visor attached to all of them.
A hat is anything else. Pillbox hat, cowboy hat, top hat, etc. This is just the way I see it and I'm sure there are many other ways to see it.