Talk:Mobcap

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There is no citation for the assertion that "Though the expression "mob cap" did not appear in print until 1812..."

I would be interested to know the basis for this assertion because I arrived on this page looking up "mob cap" from a book first published in 1796 Children of the Abbey http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4nULAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=mob%20cap&f=false

Your reference to Roche checks out, and I will edit the article accordingly. - PKM (talk) 17:12, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

WP:UNDUE

The expression "mob cap" was applied by writers such as Charles Dickens to those worn by the disorderly urban mob watching the guillotining of French aristocrats. Dickens' David Copperfield described his aunt Betsey,

Her hair, which was grey, was arranged in two divisions under what would be called a mob-cap; I mean a cap, much more common then than now, with side-pieces fastening under the chin"

I think this should be removed, as it steers by implication toward a false etymology: "mob cap" is nothing to do with "mob" in the crowd sense (which comes from Latin "mobile vulgus" - OED), and I think this selected data point from Dickens (unsupported by a secondary assertion of notability) would be undue weight, if not original research. 86.171.65.25 (talk) 12:41, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

The Oxford Dictionary of English (on my Sony e-reader) indicates this term dates to the mid 18th century and is derived from a variant of the obsolete mab - slut. 99.245.248.91 (talk) 05:20, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

References