They were revived in the 1930s; nowadays, they are primarily known as the traditional headgear for professional cooks, except in Canada, where the term toque is used interchangeably with the French Canadian spelling of tuque knit caps.

It is a loan word from the French tuque (15th century), presumably by the way of the Spanish toca 'woman's headdress', from Arabic *taqa طاقة, itself from Old Persian taq 'veil, shawl'.

The modern toque is popularly believed to have originated with the French chef Marie-Antoine Carême (1784–1833), who stiffened the casque à meche with cardboard.

[9] The fashion is said to have originated with the coureurs de bois, French and Métis fur traders, who kept their woollen nightcaps on for warmth during cold winter days.

This spelling is attributed to a number of different sources, one being the Breton toc or tok, "meaning simply 'hat'"; another suggesting that it is a Francization of the Spanish tocar, to touch, as the long "end of the sock cap" of the Voyageurs hung down and touched their shoulders;[10] and another source adamant that the word is borrowed from "the old Languedoc dialect word tuc" meaning "summit" or "the head of a mountain".

Toque also appears in the 1941 Dictionary of Mississippi Valley French as a "style of hair-dressing among the Indians" which was a tall, conical fashion not unlike the shape of the Voyageur-style cap described above.

The first Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles lists separate entries and definitions for both toque and tuque which cross-reference each other, though an illustrative line drawing is presented with the latter.

Though the requirement of the toque to have a pom-pom or no can be a hard line for some Canadians, for the most part the country agrees: one of these three spellings must be "correct" no matter what the specifics of shape.