Canadian. [a. Canadian Fr., f. F. toque, TOQUE.] A knitted stocking-cap tapered and closed at both ends, one end being tucked into the other to form the cap; formerly the characteristic winter head-dress of the Canadian ‘habitant’; now chiefly worn as part of a toboggan or snowshoe club costume.
1835. Montreal Gaz., 13 Jan., 2/6. He was dressed in a suit of grey homespun, cut in the fashion of the olden time, and with his blue tuque, his hair queued in an eel-skin.
1871. W. G. Beers, in Scribner’s Monthly, Sept., 454/2. The snow-shoe clubs have adopted the tuque.
1887. Cornh. Mag., March, 267. The real head-dress of the snowshoer being the knitted woollen tuque, a bag-shaped cap,… suggesting … the headgear of the Royal Artillery.
1894. Outing (U.S.), XXIII. 358. The Snow Shoer’s Song. Tighten the tuque, and girdle the sash, Lads and lasses, the snow shoes lash.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 23 Feb., 8/3. Their uniforms were blanket costumes, with tuques, mocassins and snowshoes.
