Toupet

Toupet is a term with multiple meanings in French and English. In French, toupet denotes a tuft of hair—a small patch or lock that can appear on the head. It is also used idiomatically to express boldness or impudence, in phrases such as avoir du toupet, meaning to have nerve or audacity.

In English, toupet is a relatively rare loanword that preserves the hair-related sense of the French term, referring to a small tuft of hair or, less commonly, to a hairpiece used to cover baldness, though the preferred term for a wig is toupee.

Toupet also exists as a surname in Francophone communities; bearers of the name have appeared in historical and contemporary records, though it is not linked to a single widely known figure internationally.

Because of its dual use as a physical descriptor and an idiom, toupet appears in discussions of grooming, fashion, and language. In modern usage, toupee remains the more common English word for a hairpiece, while toupet survives in French vocabulary and as a surname.