is "dirty blonde" depreciative?

Larry Sheldon LarrySheldon at COX.NET
Sun Mar 25 00:24:24 UTC 2012


On 3/24/2012 7:17 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:

>  On Mar 24, 2012, at 5:12 PM, Geoff 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.
>
> for me too.  but then i'm an old guy.

Me too.  I'm not sure I remember "dirty blonde" but there was
"dishwater" blonde that I think was a color descriptor with no other
implications.

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