Phrygian cap

American  

noun

1. a soft, conical cap represented in ancient Greek art as part of Phrygian dress and associated, since the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with the liberty cap.

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Phrygian cap British  

noun

1. a conical cap of soft material worn during ancient times that became a symbol of liberty during the French Revolution

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Etymology

Origin of Phrygian cap

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Phrygian cap

This year’s Olympic mascots are the Phryge and the Paralympic Phryge, small creatures that resemble a Phrygian cap, a slightly drooping, cone-shaped hat typically associated with themes of liberty in European and colonial cultures.

From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2024

The Phrygian cap is an updated version of a conical hat worn in antiquity in places such as Persia, the Balkans, Thrace, Dacia and Phrygia, a place in modern day Turkey where the name originates.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 17, 2022

Bartholdi based the statue on the Roman goddess Libertas, who is usually depicted wearing a Phrygian cap, traditionally worn by freed Roman slaves.

From New York Times ● May 15, 2019

She mentions the Phrygian cap, adopted as a symbol by the colonists, who also made homespun cloth to replace fine British textiles, as a gesture of their rejection of British rule.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 25, 2017

Now might come a Saxon wearing the beard and a sort of Phrygian cap, as a sign of defiance—now a knight from the Marches of the Northern border.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White