The highest-ranking officials or executives in an organization. The expression is generally thought to come from the late-nineteenth-century British army, when senior officers had gold oak leaves decorating the brim of their caps. John Ciardi, however, proposed another etymology, from the cocked hat worn by French officers in Napoleon’s time, which was folded and carried under the arm (in French, chapeaux à bras) while indoors; Ciardi believed the British changed bras to brass, and referred to officers as brass hats. By World War II both that term and top brass were in common use and afterward were transferred to peacetime officialdom as well. Thus, “The top police brass spreads out a hot carpet for the local cops” (Philadelphia Bulletin, 1949).