redcap
English
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redcap
Where it comes from
From red + cap.
In sense of "porter", 1890s US; compare contemporary Japanese 赤帽 (akabō), Chinese 小紅帽 /小红帽 (Xiǎo Hóng Mào). On Labor Day, 1890, John Williams, an African-American railway porter, tied a red ribbon to his black uniform cap to stand out from the crowd at Grand Central Terminal. The strategy was so successful that it was soon adopted by others in the profession, leading to the synecdochic use of redcap as a term for all railway porters.
noun redcaps · red cap · red-cap
- A member of the Royal Military Police a unit in the British army.
- A porter in a US railway station.
- A European goldfinch, Eurasian goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis).
- A type of evil goblin or imp. 1876: Porter & Coates (pub.), Reliques of Ancient English Poetry Lord Soulis he sat in Hermitage Castle, And beside him Old Redcap sly; — "Now, tell me, thou sprite, who are meikle of might, The death that I must die?"
- A breed of poultry.
Translations
Every language
noun porter
| 日本語 | 赤帽 akabō |
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Talk about this word "redcap." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/redcap. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. redcap. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/redcap "redcap." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/redcap.Cite this
@misc{redcap_2026,
title = {redcap},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/redcap},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
