tousled

[Joel S. Berson]

"Tousled" is the uncombed *look*, not "uncombed", which is styleless.

Joel

At 9/23/2010 04:14 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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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> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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