Re: OT: terms for people with different hair colours

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 1:08 AM, Matthew Turnbull <ave.jor@...> wrote:
> OK, so English has, as I understand it the following
> Red hair : a red-head
Usually spelled "redhead" IME.

> Brown hair : a brunette
> Blond hair : a blond
Gender inconsistency in your spelling there, as others have pointed
out.  The -e forms are feminine, the -e-less masculine.  And IMD a
brunet(te) is someone with *dark* hair, not necessarily brown.  Brown
hair might not even qualify if it's sufficiently light.

> Grey hair : a blue hair
Not even.  "A bluehair" is a derogatory term for an older woman, that
originates from a type of coloring (formerly?) used by women with
completely white hair that gave it a tint of blue.  The term is not in
the same category as brunet(te)/blond(e)/redhead, which are generally
value-neutral.  (Although there are of course stereotypical
associations: dumb blonde, fiery-tempered redhead, etc.)

> 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.
I've heard plenty of red-haired males called "redheads".  And I've
been called a brunet.  But in general distinguishing people by hair
color does seem to be done more with females, probably because they're
more likely to have long hair and therefore to have their hair color
visually dominant.

> after realizing there did not seem to be one for black hair, I have started thinking about it.
As indicated above, black falls within the purview of "brunet(te)" for
me.  But truly black hair is pretty rare, actually.  Usually it's just
a very dark brown.

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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