English · Idiom Historical

he has a green bonnet

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Has failed in trade. In France it used to be customary, even in the 17th century, for bankrupts to wear a green bonnet (cloth cap).

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

đã thất bại trong kinh doanh

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Colors Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “he has a green bonnet” mean?

Has failed in trade. In France it used to be customary, even in the 17th century, for bankrupts to wear a green bonnet (cloth cap).

Is “he has a green bonnet” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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