Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A stiff, cylindrical military dress hat with a metal plate or badge in front, a short visor, and a plume or pompom.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A head-dress worn by soldiers, especially infantry, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of military cap or headdress.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A stiff, cylindrical military dress hat with a metal plate in front, a short visor, and a plume.
  • noun UK A bearskin or busby.
  • noun The squilla or mantis shrimp.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun tall hat; worn by some British soldiers on ceremonial occasions

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French schako, from Hungarian csákó, from csákós (süveg), pointed (cap), from csák, peak, perhaps from Middle High German zacke, tack, nail.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Hungarian csákó a cylindrical military dress hat worn by the Hungarian hussars (from the 18th century to the 1st World War).

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Examples

  • Tell me do, who's the guy in the green coat off to one side in the shako?

    French Cuirassiers & Dragoons Der Alte Fritz 2009

  • I plan to use my SYW Black Hussars in the Napoleonic game since some of the Prussian hussars still wore the mirliton in 1806 although the Black Hussars were switching over to the shako.

    Archive 2009-06-01 Der Alte Fritz 2009

  • But my tinfoil shako makes me look like such a playa!

    doubleplus ungood | My[confined]Space 2009

  • I plan to use my SYW Black Hussars in the Napoleonic game since some of the Prussian hussars still wore the mirliton in 1806 although the Black Hussars were switching over to the shako.

    1806 Prussian Update Der Alte Fritz 2009

  • The AB figures are sculpted in the early pattern shako, so must be meant to represent the scheutzen from a light infantry unit, so I will paint them as their parent unit.

    The Stewarts & Camerons Have Arrived! Der Alte Fritz 2008

  • So borrowing from a suggestion from one of the lads on The Miniatures Page (TMP), I am thinking that the grenadiers in the musketeer regiments (are you following this so far?) will wear the shako and busch plume and have a troop quality that is no better than a musketeer.

    Archive 2008-06-01 Der Alte Fritz 2008

  • Vielles – Haudriettes, found himself face to face with a uniform, a shako, a plume, and a gun.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • Alsop also designed the limited edition range of 1805 (bicorn) and 1809 (shako) French infantry, a limited range of 1805 Austrian infantry, and his rather extensive American Civil War range (which is one of my favorite ranges of all time for any historical period - exquisite sculpts they were).

    Archive 2008-06-01 Der Alte Fritz 2008

  • Then I dabbled with them a bit, painting one elite company trooper in colpack and one regular company trooper in shako.

    Archive 2008-05-01 Der Alte Fritz 2008

  • Then I dabbled with them a bit, painting one elite company trooper in colpack and one regular company trooper in shako.

    Butterflies Are Running Amok Der Alte Fritz 2008

Comments

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  • "The child was enrolled in the military academy. He received a little sword, long trousers, and a shako."

    Embers by Sándor Márai, translated by Carol Brown Janeway, p 32 of the Vintage International paperback

    March 14, 2011