TOPEE
s. A hat, Hind. ṭopī . This is sometimes referred to Port. topo , 'the top' (also tope , 'a top-knot,' and topete , a 'toupee'), which is probably identical with English and Dutch top , L. German topp , Fr. topet , &c. But there is also a simpler Hind. word ṭop , for a helmet or hat, and the quotation from the Roteiro Vocabulary seems to show that the word existed in India when the Portuguese first arrived. With the usual tendency to specialize foreign words, we find this word becomes specialized in application to the sola hat.
Historical Citations (3)
In the vocabulary ("Este he a linguajem de Calicut") we have: "barrete (i.e. a cap): tupy."—Roteiro, 118. The following expression again, in the same work, seems to be Portuguese, and to refer to some mode in which the women's hair was dressed: "Trazem em a moleera huuns topetes por signall que sam Christãos."—Ibid. 52.
"Our good friend Sol came down in right earnest on the waste, and there is need of many a fold of twisted muslin round the white topi, to keep off his importunacy."—Dry Leaves from Young Egypt, 2.
"Topee, a solar helmet."—Wills, Modern Persia, 263.
From Hobson-Jobson by Yule & Burnell, 1886.