tousled

[Jonathan Lighter]

That "Caucasoid" bit occurred to me too, but if "tousled" is expanding its
meaning, it could apply to a large Afro as well. In that case it could mean
something like "uncombed," which seems very plausible.

I probably wouldn't call Einstein's hair, or Paderewski's, "tousled" (I'd
call it "long," even "wild," or a "mane") but I'm just one crank.
Stereotyped hippie hair wouldn't be "tousled," either, unless mildly messed
up,"uncombed" in a slightly different way.

As you say, Wilson, "Youneverknow."

JL

On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 3:56 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: tousled
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 11:40 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Q.: Can short hair be "tousled"? Â If so, what does "tousled" mean?
> Anything?
> > Or is it becoming just a journalistic default description of hair [of the
> Caucasoid type]?
>
> A. My experience, strictly literary, is that tousling requires hair of
> at least a certain, intuitively-recognized length. No one writes of
> tousling hair cut in, e.g. the marine/Marine "jarhead" style.
>
> B. I wouldn't be surprised. Youneverknow.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> –Mark Twain
>
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