is "dirty blonde" depreciative?

[Joel S. Berson]

Along George's line, I take "dirty blonde" as someone (or the hair of
someone) who has not done a good job of dyeing.  So maybe the OED
definition needs to clarify that it's depreciative of the hair, not the person?

Joel

At 3/25/2012 09:02 AM, George Thompson wrote:
>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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org