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Definitions of brunet

 
 
Reply Wed 21 Jan, 2004 05:25 pm
Does brunet just apply to a person with dark-brown or black hair or
any(or almost any) shade of brown to black hair? Some dictionary
definitions of brunet seem like brunet would apply to any shade of
brown hair to black hair, but others only acknowledge dark-brown hair
or black and dark-brown hair. Some (assume) shades of brown like a light auburn or light/pale yellowish brown are considered blond.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,241 • Replies: 27
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mac11
 
  1  
Reply Wed 21 Jan, 2004 08:23 pm
Hi Punkerslut, welcome to A2K.

In my experience, "brunette" specifically means dark brown or black hair. I've seen "brownette" - meaning brown-haired - written, but I think it's more of a slang word.
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Wy
 
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Reply Wed 21 Jan, 2004 08:29 pm
It's like finding the dividing line between yellow and green... one person's yellowy-green is another person's greeny-yellow...

Brunet (boys) and brunette (girls) refer to brown hair, but where light brown ends and dark blond (boys)/blonde (girls) begins is pretty vague.

Maybe eye color/complection enter into it at that point...
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Craven de Kere
 
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Reply Wed 21 Jan, 2004 08:29 pm
Depends, trying to nail down a consensus on colors can be tough.

With hair color region, culture, and race sometimes play a part.

In some nations with fewer blondes someone with chestnut colored hair is called a blonde.

I suspect the criteria varies.
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Wed 21 Jan, 2004 08:33 pm
In a culture with no experience of more than a small range of variations, the differences in perception can be quite surprising, CdK . . . Charles Stewart was the grandson of Marie de Medici, and his complexion was "olive," and he had thick, black hair as well. When he escaped from the battle of Worcester, and was fleeing the country, the Parliamentarians put up posters describing him as: "A black man, two yards high . . . " The motion picture serialization of the 1950's entitled Boston Blackie referred to a white man with black hair . . .
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Wy
 
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Reply Wed 21 Jan, 2004 08:58 pm
Yeah, and we've all heard of "black Irish", who are no more African than I am (possibly less, as my ancestors have lived in America since the time of the American Revolution)... I bet Boston Blackie was one o' them...
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Setanta
 
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Reply Wed 21 Jan, 2004 09:00 pm
Could be, although it is a popular misconception that the Black Irish are those with black hair.
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Ceili
 
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Reply Wed 21 Jan, 2004 10:29 pm
Set,
I've heard the term black irish used in two ways.
Decendents of the moors who plundered the irish coast or like my mother, very black/blue black hair, white skin - no freckles and pale eyes, green, grey or blue.
Why is this a misconception?
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 06:55 am
The Black Irish are characterized by dark hair, not necessarily black, and what is, relative to the extremely pale skin of the rest of the Irish, a dark complexion. They are also usually tall, which is not a characteristic (necessarily) of those with some Spanish blood in them. I know of no reason to believe that the Moors ever plundered the Irish coast, they simply weren't deep water sailors--they had no way to get there, and no reason to go. The final wave of settlement in pre-christian Ireland were the Milesians, who likely came from Galacia in Spain (the name derives from the Roman word for the Kelts). The Spanish have continually traded with Ireland for the last few millenia, which likely accounts for the "raven" hair of many Irish.
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Letty
 
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Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 08:53 am
Wow! Fantastic info here. Are the white Irish gypsys?

I always thought there were three hair types:

Blonds, brunettes, and red heads.

Somewhere, I heard that a true Irish beauty was one with black hair and blue eyes and a widow's peak. Never understood where the term "widow's peak" came from, nor have I ever met anyone with raven black hair.
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mac11
 
  1  
Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 08:55 am
Re: widow's peak:

From Merriam Webster Unabridged:

Main Entry: widow's peak
Function: noun
Etymology: so called from the former belief that it is an omen of early widowhood
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Letty
 
  1  
Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 09:00 am
Hey, thanks, Mac. I used to believe that the term "gypsy" came from Romania until my Irish friend said they were Arabs. Now I'm wondering about that.
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mac11
 
  1  
Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 09:05 am
As I recall, the word "gypsy" came from Egyptian.
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Wy
 
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Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 09:53 am
And they're not Arabs. The Roma, what we call gypsies, are originally from India...
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sozobe
 
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Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 09:56 am
Lots of great info on Roma/ Gypsies here:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17692&highlight=

Wy, what I remember from the book "Bury Me Standing" by Isabel Fonseca, about the Roma, is that India seems very possible but they don't know for sure.
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Wy
 
  1  
Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 10:26 am
You're right, soz. Even as I posted, I remembered that... It's somewhere in that neighborhood, though, and certainly not Egypt or Romania.
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 10:30 am
There are Irish "Gypsies," who call themselves the Travellers. They are in the U.S. in large numbers. They are an insular community, which rarely marries outside the group, and they are in the grifting trade--driveway resurfacing, roofing, and other such scams which prey upon the gullible and the elderly. They're a sorry bunch.
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littlek
 
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Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 10:32 am
I am one of those people who gets called, alternatively, blonde and brunette. I would call my hair the color of honey or caramel - that range.
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Letty
 
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Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 10:49 am
Hey, LittleK. Hair color is as varying as eye color, no?

Gypsy simply means nomad, so they could be any of a wandering people, I suppose. Romany is the term that I remember, and when I looked it up it did cite India as the source.

Wow! we have romantizied the "gypsy". Even Bizet did it.

Ah that aria.

p.s. PS, Thanks for an interesting thread and I, too, add my welcome.
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littlek
 
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Reply Thu 22 Jan, 2004 10:51 am
Letty - yep, my eyes range from green through blue grey.

Dagmaraka has had some experience with the Roma gypsies. Knows some of their history.
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