Why Is Tipping Your Hat A Sign Of Respect
Lets talk about that hat tip. A hat tip tells someone that you’re saying you respect them or their work. The hat tip has metamorphed, in polite society into a verbal idiom used to thank or congratulate. If you see “[H/T]” at the bottom of articles its the familiar hat tip that writers use to appreciate their original sources of information. So why is tipping your hat a sign of respect?
You are viewing: What You Do With Your Hat To Show Respect
Read more : What Is Personal Recognizance Bond
Hugely popular in Anglo-Western societies in the etiquette-obsessed 18th and 19th centuries, the custom of tipping, or doffing, one’s hat was a common practice of touching your hat or lifting it fully off your head as a polite hello or goodbye. The norm was to remove a hat fully (to doff it) in various formal encounters; mere tipping was fine for casual greetings.
According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable removing one’s hat is “a relic of the ancient custom of taking off the helmet when no danger is nigh. A man takes off his hat to show he dares stand unarmed in your presence.” This sheds light on the other moments when removing one’s hat was required like when entering a medical facility, a church, or when in the presence of a lady. It began as a demonstration of vulnerability and trust and eventually transforming into a casual show of politeness and etiquette.
For the respectable, hat-wearing gentry, the Victorians in particular, tipping one’s hat became an established custom. The tradition has been documented fairly consistently through the centuries, before and after the Victorian age. According to History Professor Penelope J. Corfield, in her 1989 essay “Dress for Deference and Dissent: Hats and the Decline of Hat Honour”: “Above all, as the head was a symbol of authority, the covering or uncovering of the head, in Western society, was for men an important signal of relative status.” The concept and practices of “hat honor” was connected with the intricacies of bowing and had major social repercussions.
Read more : What Are Gloves Used For
Though casual and polite, hat-tipping spoke volumes by itself and showed a person’s tastes while at the same time allowing for a recognition of social status; if you were from the lower-class it was expected that you would be more elaborate in your gesture, removing your hat entirely, while those in the upper-class would only need to tip or even just touch their hat. If you aspired to climb the social ladder you had to study hat-doffing rituals so as to pass as having knowledge of etiquette.
Over time, the gesture changed for the common man. Erving Goffman, a Canadian-American sociologist, theorized that the hat-tip was used much more in the 19th and 20th centuries as a subtle signal to end a social encounter. You tip your hat; the other person gets the message its time to shut up. Goffman also made clear a possible distinction between greeting strangers versus true friends: you tipped your hat to a stranger, but you full-on bowed to someone you know.
The hat tip has continued to evolve as a method of non-verbal communication. Now, the classic hat-tip has changed to a simple nod of recognition. Like the old-fashioned etiquette move, it comes with both casual and formal forms, as well: nod up to greet your friends, nod down to acknowledge your boss.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHAT
