Lost in Translation--US vs UK English words

[NewGuise]

People can say that that word has spread world-wide, but if Americans and Kiwis and Aussies and Brits don't know what touque means, that claim has little validity. As I said, we had a group of all of the above talking about it at Disneyland and no one but the Canadians had ever heard of touque.

Yet I have personally seen "touques" (or "toques" or "tucques"...) for sale in England, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and South Africa, as well as in New York City (if no where else in the USA), whch does give some validity to the claim. The shop owners might well have been Canadians in all cases, for all I know, but any buyers would likewise have learned the term.

[starbkjrus]

Ok all I freely admit I helped yank this one off the tracks a bit so along with several others let me help it the other way....

I also admit I've sat on the Chesterfield at my Mother-In-Law's wearing a Chesterfield after coming in from the cold and dripping gravy and cheese off my touque all over the furniture. BUT that was only after a bad situation involving hockey and beer.

Now --YANK-- back to UK'isms and er..perhaps NORTH American'isms. Ten years married to a Canadian has brought some laughter on the same subject.

I, for one am enjoying this thread a lot. Back to UK English vs. American English and add Canada to it.

Keep it going. opcorn: int: int:

[Lachlan09]

German soldiers in WW2 also wore what they called a toque which was a form of simple knitted hood / scarf open at each end and pulled over the head and neck to form a type of balaklava.

There is a good photo of a Waffen SS soldier in winter combat dress on the Eastern Front, cigarette hanging from his mouth, wearing a toque under his stahlhelm. Another famous photo of a Waffen SS infantry squad leader during the Ardennes Offensive of December 1944 aka Battle of the Bulge (part of a piece of German combat newsreel film I think of the 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler") shows him armed with a Sturmgewehr-44, leading on his men through burning American tanks and vehicles, wearing the 1944 pattern SS cotton camouflage suit with other clothing underneath for warmth. He is wearing his 1942 pattern stahlhelm over a toque.