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Re: Tin hatPosted by Lewis on September 20, 2004 In Reply to: Tin hat posted by Shae on September 20, 2004 : To put the tin hat on something is to finish it off or bring it to an end. To put a kibosh on something has much the same meaning. As we saw in a thread at the beginning of this month, 'kibosh' is likely derived from the Gaelic expression for 'death cap,' as donned by a judge when issuing a death sentence. : Does 'tin hat' have a similar origin? doubt it. it sounds like a first-world war expression - to be fully uniformed would be to put the tin hat on it - the last piece of kit. I don't think helmets were called 'tin hats' until they were introduced in WWI. there is some difference between traditional helms and the WWI helmets - perhaps the purpose - WWI tin hats replaced cloth 'forage caps' which had superseded pith helmets/berets/cavalry helmets etc for much of the army.
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