Etymology

ten-gallon hat

Today it means: A large cowboy hat, not holding ten gallons like the name would suggest but usually around three quarts. Full definition →

Spanish galón
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The story

  1. Spanish · derived fromgalón“braid”
  2. English todayten-gallon hat

Not certain. An earlier form without the number, gallon hat, comes by folk etymology from the Spanish galón (“braid”). It may also be a hyperbolic reference to the size of the hat, or a combination of the two.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.