is "dirty blonde" depreciative?

Jesse Sheidlower jester at PANIX.COM
Sun Mar 25 10:53:14 UTC 2012


On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 02:12:04PM -1000, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
> >From the OED:
>
> dirty blonde adj. and n. orig. U.S. (mildly depreciative) (a) adj.(of
> the hair) dark blonde; blonde tinged with a darker colour; (b) n.a
> person with hair of this colour.
>
> When I was growing up, the term referred simply to a hair color, with
> no implication of disapproval.

It's neutral for me as well. I'm trying to find out where the label came
from, not least because I seem to have been the person who drafted this
entry....

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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