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Number 8 hat

Posted by Smokey Stover on November 17, 2006

In Reply to: Number 8 hat Posted by Mike ollis on November 16, 2006

: I've recently been reading some 1950's Motor Cycling magazines and a few times I have come across the expression "Number 8 hat" meaning intelligent person. Any idea as to the origin.

The hat size scale, in the U.S., ends at 8. Anyone wearing a size 8 has a big head. Sometimes "big heads" is used as a synonym for "big brains," used colloquially. Sometimes saying that someone else has a "big head," or "swelled head," is a way of calling them an egotist.
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