is "dirty blonde" depreciative?

[paul johnson]

  "plow new ground", they're not that dirty!



On 3/25/2012 10:30 AM, Eric Nielsen wrote:
> 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:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> 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?
>>>>
>>>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> 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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