October 26, 1999

cap, set one's

I was wondering about the expression "setting your cap" for someone. Where did this saying come from? I've seen it used in reference to both men and women, and am curious about how it became (relatively) commonplace.

The expression to set one's cap for or set one's cap at comes from the French navigational expression mettre le cap sur, meaning 'to set a course for.' How an eighteenth century French navigational term came to be applied to nineteen century husband-hunting Englishwomen is a puzzle of language evolution. There are some 18th century citations that may or may not reflect this use in English, but the first clear evidence of the restricted meaning is found in Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1848) "That girl is setting her cap at you."

The exclusive feminine meaning of set one's cap for continued well into the twentieth century. Many contemporary dictionaries still restrict the expression so that it may refer only to a woman and her quest for a man's love. With changing social circumstances, however, this meaning is losing ground. Today, the most ubiquitous use of the expression is found in historical romance novels: "Although she is only a poor housekeeper's daughter, Elizabeth Honeybridge has secretly set her cap for handsome Spencer Henton" (from a plot summary I found on the Internet).

As we near the twenty-first century and social expectations change, the expression is used more frequently to refer to men, as seen in this character synopsis from the television show Magnificent Seven: "While JD is currently single, he has set his cap for the lovely. . . Casey Wells." In contemporary usage, the object of desire may be a man, a woman or even a thing: ". . . the office that Bill Clinton set his cap for in 1983. . .was not the same office he occupies today."

It's interesting that the new use of set one's cap for in English is almost identical to the modern French use of mettre le cap sur 'to set a goal.' The expression has no doubt set its cap at continuing to be useful in a changing world.

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