 |
Feather in Your Cap
That's a feather in your cap. An honour to you. The allusion is
to the very general custom in Asia and among the American Indians of
adding a new feather to their head-gear for every enemy slain. The
Caufirs of Cabul stick a feather in their turban for every Mussulman
slain by them. The Incas and Caciques, the Meunitarris and Mandans (of
America), the Abyssinians and Turcomans, etc., etc., follow the same
custom. So did the ancient Lycians, and many others. In Scotland and
Wales it is still customary for the sportsman who kills the first
woodcock to pluck out a feather and stick it in his cap. In fact, the
custom, in one form or another, seems to be almost universal.
When “Chinese” Gordon quelled the Taïping rebellion he was honoured
by the Chinese Government with the “yellow jacket and peacock's
feather.”
In Hungary, at one time, none might wear a feather but he who had
slain a Turk. (Lansdowne MS. 775, folio 149.)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Feather in Your Cap from Infoplease:
- Feather in Your Cap - Feather in Your Cap That's a feather in your cap. An honour to you. The allusion is to the very ...
- Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: F - Definitions, origins, and illustrative excerpts for words, phases, and literary allusions starting with "F"
See a map of "" in the Visual Thesaurus
|
|
