A stylish lady in an arakçın, circa 1625.
In mid-16th-century sources, “arakçın” is simply a word for any hat. By the end of the century it appears to have attached to women’s hats in particular, but it describes the pillbox hats of the 16th century, the small cones of the turn of the century, and the sugarloaf hats of the early 17th century alike. For mysterious reason, the Ottomans, complete bastards that they were when it came to naming everything else in their wardrobes, decided not to give different styles of women’s hats different names.
The one extant sugarloaf hat is labeled “arakçın,” so modern scholars often call all sugarloaf hats arakçın. It’s a more specific use than the word had in period, but since the Ottomans decided to be assholes and not give us style names, arakçın it is.