missing word: mullet

[Lynne Murphy]

Neither the brand new AHD nor the OED have _mullet_ as the name of a
haircut.  RHDAS only has it as a shortening of 'mullethead', meaning
'a fool'.  I've seen it tons in the UK, and increasingly in the US
(it's in yesterday's Salon article about Christopher Guest as
'mullet-headed':
http://salon.com/people/feature/2000/10/06/guest/index.html).

Bloomsbury's got a book out this year called _The Mullet: Hairstyle
of the Gods_ by Mark Larson.

Washington Post has an article called "Mullet, the hairdo that still
does" (29 Feb 2000), according to which no one knows when _mullet_
was first used for a haircut.

Beastie Boys have a 1994 song called "Mullet Head", which includes
instructions for barbers.

This is one for the word books...

Lynne

--
M. Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 3AN    UK
phone:  +44(0)1273-678844
fax:    +44(0)1273-671320