Teachers will often tell students to “put on their thinking caps” when they want them to take time to think things over.
Caps have been associated with academics, jurists, scholars, and clerics for centuries.
One of the most familiar of these caps is the mortarboard worn at graduation, so called for its similarity to the instrument used by bricklayers.
In the seventeenth century, English judges wore a “considering cap” while pondering a sentence.
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