is "dirty blonde" depreciative?

[Eric Nielsen]

And here I thought someone could plow new ground. I should have known.

Eric

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 10:49 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: is "dirty blonde" depreciative?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mar 25, 2012, at 10:42 AM, Eric Nielsen wrote:
>
> > I agree that "dirty blonde" is not generally considered as attractive as
> > "golden blonde". In fact, it just barely makes it into being blonde.
> >
> > But, I think dirty blondes do escape some ridicule. One doesn't usually
> > have a dirty blonde in mind when a blonde joke is told. At least I don't
> > think so.
> >
> > Eric
>
> Maybe just for those dirty blonde jokes (on late-night and cable).
>
> LH
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 9:02 AM, George Thompson <
> george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:
> >
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> >> Subject:      Re: is "dirty blonde" depreciative?
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >> I would take it as pejorative only in the esthetic sense of a color that
> >> falls within the range of "blonde", but is less attractive than "golden
> >> blonde".  Not a reflexion on the character or personality of the woman
> >> (usually, I suppose) under the hair.
> >>
> >> GAT
> >>
> >> On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 8:12 PM, Geoffrey Nunberg <
> >> nunberg at ischool.berkeley.edu> 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.
> >>>
> >>> Geoff
> >>>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> George A. Thompson
> >> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> >> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
> >>
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> >>
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