Re: OT: terms for people with different hair colours

Also (American English):

blond (is gender neutral; blonde is specifically female) -> tow head (sometimes
incorrectly spelled "toe head") from tow = flax or hemp fiber = flaxen haired.

red head - carrot top, copper top, ginger kid

Black haired - raven (said of female goth or punk styles only)

--gary

--- On Sun, 10/19/08, Matthew Turnbull <ave.jor@...> wrote:

> From: Matthew Turnbull <ave.jor@...>
> Subject: terms for people with different hair colours
> To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu
> Date: Sunday, October 19, 2008, 10:08 PM
> OK, so English has, as I understand it the following
> Red hair : a red-head
> Brown hair : a brunette
> Blond hair : a blond
> Grey hair : a blue hair
> Black hair : ???? (does English have a word for this)
>
> I also seem to notice that all of these words are
> distinctly female, you
> would say a guy was red-headed, but not a red-head (most of
> the time). And I
> can't imagine calling a guy a brunette.
>
> Anyhow, so I was wondering what all we know here about hair
> colour based
> person terms, and if anyone has given it any thought in a
> conlang. I have
> yet to give it serious thought, but after realizing there
> did not seem to be
> one for black hair, I have started thinking about it.

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