The Rice University Neologisms Database

1: a small round tight-fitting skullcap worn especially by schoolboys and college freshmen 2: any variation of a skullcap worn in cold weather to warm one’s head I had never heard this until I cam to Rice. I’m from west Texas, and what I am used to calling a ‘toboggan’, everyone here seems to call a ‘beanie’. When I say ‘toboggan’ they think I’m referring to a sled, and when they say ‘beanie’ I imagine the cap worn by freshmen like in definition 1.