Plural of fez; traditional cone-shaped hats with a flat top and sometimes a tassel, historically worn in Ottoman and North African cultures.
From Turkish 'fes,' named after the city of Fez in Morocco where the hat was manufactured. The word entered English in the 17th century through Ottoman trade and cultural contact. The plural 'fezes' uses the English '-es' ending rather than an Arabic or Turkish plural form.
The fez has an interesting history—it became the official hat of the Ottoman military in the 1800s and was so iconic that when Turkey wanted to modernize, banning the fez in 1925 was actually seen as a revolutionary act representing progress and Westernization.
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