A Science Fiction Contribution to English

OED Online Word of the Day

tinfoil hat, n.

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌtɪnfɔɪl ˈhat/,  U.S. /ˈˌtɪnˌfɔɪl ˈhæt/

Etymology: <  tinfoil n. + hat n.

With sense b and uses in Compounds compare earlier tinfoil cap n. (b) at tinfoil n. Additions, and the following quotation taken from an early 20th-cent. science fiction story:

1926  J. Huxley Tissue-culture King in Yale Rev. Apr. 500 We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect, and had prepared for ourselves a sort of tin pulpit, behind which we could stand while conducting experiments. This, combined with caps of metal foil, enormously reduced the effects on ourselves.

 orig. and chiefly U.S.

 

A hat made from tinfoil.

a.  As worn at a party, celebration, etc.

1884 Life 2 Oct. 1/1 A tinfoil hat, a spangled shirt.

1947 Kokomo(Indiana)Tribune 23 July 6/3 A color note of pink and green prevailed in the appointments and favors were novelty tin foil hats and suckers.

1984  D. Unger Leaving Land 126 A television crew drove all the way from Rapid City to cover the party. Everyone wore a tinfoil hat. Everyone yelled and blew a paper horn.

1997 Times (Nexis) 10 Jan., I recall‥being on a train with A Famous Band, drinking champagne and celebrating their new Top Ten hit by wearing a very silly tinfoil hat.

 

 b.  With allusion to the belief that such a hat protects the wearer from mind control, surveillance, or similar types of threat. Frequently either extraterrestrials or the government are imagined to be the source of such threats.

1982 Plain Dealer(Cleveland, Ohio) 16 May 25/5 A Cleveland woman telephoned last year to complain that her neighbor was shooting an invisible death ray at her. She wanted the police to stop it. The dispatcher suggested she wear a tin foil hat and put tin on her windows to deflect the rays.

1986 San Diego Union 19 July d1/1 She told one reporter‥that the midgets and androids were spying on her‥. He advised her to line her attic with tinfoil and to wear a tinfoil hat. They can't penetrate tinfoil, he explained.

1994 Denver(Colorado)Post (Nexis) 23 Sept. b1 These folks stop just short of wearing tinfoil hats to shield them from evil government rays.

2007 Maximum PC Feb. 50/2 Have reason to believe ‘the man’ is watching your PC activity with a keylogger? KeyScrambler Personal will encrypt your keystrokes‥. Tinfoil hat not included.

 

Compounds

 a.  attrib. In sense b, with the sense, ‘deluded, paranoid; advocating or believing in conspiracy theories’.

1994 Denver(Colorado)Post 19 Aug. b1/5 A person can be right-wing without joining the goofball, tinfoil-hat brigade.

2005  H. Duncan Vellum 353 He's not crazy enough to think they're beaming thoughts into his head; he's not reached the tinfoil hat stage yet. But they're definitely watching him, following him.

2009  E. Emerson Cape Disappointment 158 ‘Is anybody looking into the possibility that the plane might have been brought down on purpose?’ ‘You mean a tinfoil-hat conspiracy?’

 b.  tinfoil-hat-wearing adj.

2000 Rush is Wrong in alt.fan.rush-limbaugh (Usenet newsgroup) 4 Feb., There are certain Posters on this site who will soon show up to call anyone who believes this article, kooks, loons and tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy nuts!

2010  G. Beck Overton Window 81 According to network news, you're all borderline-insane, ignorant, paranoid, uneducated, hate-mongering, tinfoil-hat-wearing, racist conspiracy theorists.