I have a whole bunch of questions I wrote down while taking notes from my reading of Sorcerer's Stone. I'll be posting the ones that havent been answered, as threads. I think they'll make for some interesting discussion.

If you look at the Sorting Hat's song in SS, in the last line, it sings "For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
It struck me that JKR made this a proper noun. Does this mean there are other hats like the Sorting Hat for different purposes? Obviously there could be enchanted hats and such that might be sold in Diagon Alley, but it seems that the term 'Thinking Cap' is more profound and specific, almost like a species.

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I always thought she used the term because of the expression "put on your thinking cap" that's been in use for ages.

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Can you provide the source for that?


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Yes, but then why is 'Thinking Cap' a proper noun?

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I'm trying to think of what other purposes that a thinking cap is needed. The only thing I can think up is to use on criminals. A thinking cap might be able to look inside said criminals head and see if he actually did said crime, but they have veritaserum for that.

She could have capitalized because it's like a nickname for the cap. My two cents

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I always read the capitalization as a kind of acknowledgement that the hat isn't just talking about "thinking caps" in the metaphorical sense, but also in a literal sense. I've always thought the Sorting Hat was pretty much one-of-a-kind; the fact that JKR chose to capitalize Thinking Cap seems to me more of a stylistic decision that draws attention to the double meaning.

JKR capitalizes lots of things.

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Any examples you'd like to compare, or are you just making a statement?

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I think that the use of the phrase "thinking cap" is intended to be a double-entendre, both in that a hat that supposedly helps you think, and as an actual cap with the ability to think.

I'm certain that while there may or may not have been other hats like the sorting hat, there were variations - Ravenclaw's diadem actually helped you think better, Fred and George enchanted some hats I believe, and I'm sure I recall that there may be something similar that students are banned from using during exams...

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I think that the Sorting Hat is unique, and that Thinking Cap is, as another poster said, in reference to "put on your thinking cap". It may have been (at least in the context) a title the Sorting Hat gave itself. Of course, many writers (especially in poetry) capitalize things for emphasis, not proper noun-ship.

So you think maybe it just highlights the fact that this is a hat that actually thinks! so that the reader is more introduced to the type of magic that is available in the wizarding world? I guess that fits quite well. But still, it really stood out to me as more significant than that.




This fits with more of what I was thinking initially.

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