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The Stack Exchange Winter Bash 2013 has me thinking about hats, as my collection is growing. I know that the terms for people who collect specific things are generally obscure, but they do exist. Perhaps the most common of those types of words is "philatelist"— a person who collects stamps.

Is there a similar word for a person who collects hats?

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  • Although I don't know a similar word for a person who collects hats, I know a couple more words related (more or less) to stamp collecting: timbromaniac “(philately) a person who is passionate about stamp-collecting” and philometrist, “collector of envelopes, etc., for their postal meter impressions”
    – James Waldby - jwpat7
    Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 19:58
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    "Stack Exchange user (December 2013 - January 2014)"
    – Hugo
    Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 20:10
  • Nice hat, btw. :-)
    – T.E.D.
    Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 21:27
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    Perhaps in decades to come, when millinophilia (excessive love of hat-wearing) is eventually recognised as a serious disease, historians and epidemiologists will blame Stack Exchange for starting the epidemic. I'm already infected (I've just put on my "Chuck Yeagar" hat, even though I know nothing about him, and I've no idea how I got this "secret" hat! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 22:18
  • @FumbleFingers, I think the "Chuck Yeagar" is for answering a question quickly, but I don't know what the time range is.
    – Ananda Mahto
    Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 4:33

3 Answers 3

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There isn't really a specific word for someone who likes/collects hats (i.e. - you won't find one in a dictionary). But people who are interested in hats may well know that...

A hat maker is called a milliner.

...in which case they would doubtless understand this coinage that I found in Google Books...

Sadly, living in sunny, funny LA, l have to wait for bad weather to visit the milliner. lf you're a millinophile like me, don't miss The Millionairess.

Since wealthy people could more easily afford to buy lots of expensive hats, it's at least possible that "The Millionairess" is a deliberate play on words there, but probably it's just a coincidence.

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    Perhaps this is "correct", but looking at that word I can't help but think it describes a person who has some wierd fetish for hat makers.
    – T.E.D.
    Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 21:26
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    You could call the young ones millinials; to the confusion of all.
    – Wayfaring Stranger
    Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 21:27
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    @T.E.D.: Per the first sentence of my answer, I make no claim for it being "correct". But obviously it was a "plausible" coinage by Meredith Alexander (the cited author). Firstly because we must assume she expected her readers to understand it - but secondly (and more importantly to me), there's the fact that it occurred to me independently. I only searched for it on Google Books because I guessed someone else would have thought along the same lines. Anyway, we can't allow paedophiles to give a bad name to all lovers - I'm all for Anglophiles, for example.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 22:05
  • @FumbleFingers, I think this is as close as I'm going to get with this one. +1, and the big green!
    – Ananda Mahto
    Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 4:32
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capel is the Latin word for hat, headdress.

For a neologism, capellophile is a possibility, and seems to be in limited use in French slang already.

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    +1. I like the sound of this one. Rolls off the tongue quite nicely.
    – Ananda Mahto
    Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 4:31
  • A hat fetish eh? A capellophile?
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 16:21
  • @Susan: I'm ashamed to admit I didn't actually know L. capel = hat, so without context I'd have probably guessed capellophile = lover of chapels (or maybe lover of unaccompanied vocal music :). But the key point is we both came up with credible neologisms, and it turns out Google finds exactly one instance of each. Yours, of course, has the more august pedigree. But at least my "recorded instance in the wild" was in a published book, whereas I only found yours in an online chat forum.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 21:06
  • Enough already! Although I gave you a supporting reference from an Anglophone, I didn't actually upvote because I wouldn't have been able to guess the meaning without context (on account of relative illiteracy, obviously! :) But given the French are supposed to be world leaders in the fashion industry and matters sartorial, I suppose I must upvote and be damned.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 21:56
  • Mixing Latin and Greek roots makes me sad. How about using πέτασος, which is a particular type of hat (a broad-brimmed felt one - I couldn't find a Greek word for "hat" in general) to neologize petasophile?
    – Stephan Kolassa
    Commented Nov 3, 2016 at 20:06
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I applaud Susan and FumbleFingers for their contributions. My own preference is to keep it simple if slightly vulgar, and denote those with an enthusiasm for hats as 'hat fetishist'.

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