[PW] Origin of "Talking through his hat"?

[Bill Davis]

It's been suggested that the phrase was another way of saying that someone 
was talking "off the top of their head," (ergo, through their hat), so it 
might be helpful to also know the orgins of the former phrase as well.

Bill Davis


At 07:50 PM 9/27/2007, you wrote:


>I'm looking for the likely origin of the phrase "talking through his hat",
>alternately "talking into his hat."  I've checked online resources and
>database collections, including Oxford references.
>
>Google Books does not show an entry earlier than the 1880s, though
>accounts of Joseph Smith recount that he talked into his hat to translate
>the Book of Mormon, which would have been before 1880.  Are there earlier
>references?
>
>----