Wiktionary

Phrygian cap

English

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WOTD – 28 August 2024

Etymology

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A Macedonian sculpture from the 100s C.E., possibly representing a theatrical mask, of a man wearing a Phrygian cap (sense 1)—its Ancient Greek inscription, ΑΣΤΥΑΝΑΞ (Astyanax), means “city overlord”.
 
A detail from Eugène Delacroix’s La Liberté guidant le peuple (Liberty Leading the People, 1830) depicting a personification of Liberty wearing a Phrygian cap.
 
A computed tomography (CT) scan showing a Phrygian cap (sense 2; grey shape in the centre) at the fundus of a gall bladder—the part furthest away from where the organ connects to the bile duct.

From Phrygian (“of or relating to Phrygia, its people or their culture”) +‎ cap. Sense 2 (“congenital abnormality of the gall bladder”) is a calque of German phrygische Mütze, coined by J. Bartel in 1916[1] and popularized by Edward A. Boyden.[2][3]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Phrygian cap (plural Phrygian caps)

  2. (Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome) A soft, close-fitting conical cap with the top bent forward, represented in Greek and Roman art as worn by ancient Phrygians, and later associated with the Roman liberty cap.
    Hypernyms: cap of liberty, liberty cap
    Coordinate term: pileus
    • 1699, Martin Lister, “Of Paris in General”, in A Journey to Paris in the Year 1698, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 46:
      A Phrygian Priapus of Elegant VVorkmanſhip: The Phrygian Cap pointed and hanging dovvn behind, as our Caps in Diſhabille are novv vvorn.
    • 1791, R[udolf] E[rich] Raspe, “Castor and Pollux, or the Twins”, in A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems, Cameos as well as Intaglios, Taken from the Most Celebrated Cabinets in Europe; […], volume I, London: […] [C. Buckton] for and sold by James Tassie, […]; and J[ohn] Murray, […], →OCLC, paragraph 1261, pages 108–109, column 1:
      [Cornelian. Brit[ish] Muſ[eum].] The tvvo Dioſcuri, vvith Phrygian caps, on horſeback, approaching a female in a long robe, in the middle, vvho ſeems to hold their horſes by the head.
    • 1878 May, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, “From Ponkapog to Pesth. Chapter II. On a Balcony.”, in The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume XLI, number CCXLVII, Boston, Mass.: Houghton, Osgood and Company […], →OCLC, page 599, column 2:
      He was a handsome wretch, physically. […] I have no doubt that his red Phrygian cap concealed a pair of pointed furry ears; but his tattered habiliments and the strips of gay cloth wound, brigand-like, about his calves were not able to hide the ungyved grace of his limbs.
    • 2003, Gabriel García Márquez, chapter 2, in Edith Grossman, transl., Living to Tell the Tale […] (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 75:
      A short while later, the fire in the courtyard was lit again when a hen laid a fantastic egg that looked like a Ping-Pong ball with an appendage like that on a Phrygian cap. My grandmother identified it on the spot: "It's a basilisk's egg." She threw it into the fire, murmuring prayers of conjuration.
    • 2024 July 13, Tom Metcalfe, “Why this Ancient Hat is the 2024 Olympic Mascot”, in National Geographic‎[1], Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-07-28:
      Smiley Phryge (pronounced, with French style, as "Free-juh") represents what's known as a Phrygian cap, based on similar caps worn by 18th-century French revolutionaries, who saw it as a symbol of freedom. […] "When the French and British wanted to choose a cap of liberty from antiquity, they got it wrong," he [Charles Brian Rose] says. "They chose the Phrygian cap, which signified Middle East status, rather than the pileus, which signified liberty—and so the Phrygian cap came to be interpreted as a symbol of liberty."
  4. (by extension, anatomy) A congenital abnormality of the gall bladder with no pathological significance, caused by a folding at the distal part of the fundus.
    • 2003, Ernest E. Lack, “Normal Anatomy of the Gallbladder and Cystic Duct along with Developmental and Other Abnormalities”, in Pathology of the Pancreas, Gallbladder, Extrahepatic Biliary Tract, and Ampullary Region, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part II (Gallbladder), page 407, column 1:
      The phrygian cap or folded-fundus gallbladder is a relatively frequent variation in the shape of the gallbladder, which appears as a persistent notch on radiographic contrast study. […] The phrygian cap does not appear to be the result or the cause of disease, and is considered to be of no clinical importance except that it may stimulate a stone or other abnormality.

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ J. Bartel (1916) “Cholelithiasis und Korperkonstitution Cholelithotripsie [Cholelithiasis and Body Constitution Cholelithotripsy]”, in Frankfurter Zeitschrift für Pathologie [Frankfurt Journal of Pathology], volume 19, Munich, Bavaria: Bergen, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 206.
  2. ^ Edward A. Boyden (1935 January) “The Phrygian Cap in Cholecystography: A Congenital Anomaly of the Gallbladder”, in American Journal of Roentgenology, volume 33, Leesburg, Va.: American Roentgen Ray Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 589.
  3. ^ Varun Kulkarni [et al.] (2022 December) “A Rare Incidental Finding of Phrygian Cap in a Case of Pyloric Perforation”, in John R. Adler, Alexander Muacevic, editors, Cureus, volume 14, number 12, Palo Alto, Calif.: Cureus, Inc., →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, →PMID, article e32451: “The term was first coined by Bartel et al. in their studies on autopsy cases, which were further popularised by Boyden et al.”

Further reading

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