# Blond



## Rainbowlight

Hello everyone,

I would like to know which is the word for "blond" in your language. I would also like to know if a difference can be made between the word "blond" (a male with blond hair) and "blonde", meaning a female with blond hair.

I'm also curious about to know if the used word is also similar to others that, intriguingly, can be associated with blond hair, at least in the English language. I'm referring to words such as "blend" (meaning _to mix_) or even "blind" (*not* in the sense of _visually impaired_, *but* in the sense of _hidden_ or _concealed_, as dying human hair blond sometimes implies the "covering" of a previous, natural hair colour.)

Are there any synonyms, no matter how old-fashioned or maybe belonging to one of the dialects of your language, for the word? Is there a known etymology of the word?

Are there words in your language that may seem unrelated to the original word but share an overly similar structure (maybe ones in which the initial letter is swapped by another but the rest of the word follows an identical pattern)?

Last but not least, I would like to know if there are people with naturally occurring blond hair in territories where your language is widely spoken. Please forgive my ignorance about this subject. I know some received stereotypes state that natural hair colour in geographical territories where some language is spoken tends to be depicted as a lighter or darker shade of brown, black or red. 

However, I'm curious as to know if sometimes a completely natural, _non-dyed_ blond hair does also occur in your country (no matter what the prevalent hair colour in your country is) and if there is a precise term for designating those people.

Please forgive me for the overwhelming number of questions. : )

Thank you so, so much for your patience, kindness and help.


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## apmoy70

Ιn Greek it's *«ξανθός, -θή, -θό»* [k͡s̠anˈθo̞s̠] (masc.), [k͡s̠anˈθi] (fem.), [k͡s̠anˈθo̞] (neut.) < Classical adjective *«ξανθός, -θή, -θόν» ksăntʰós* (masc.), *ksăntʰḗ* (fem.), *ksăntʰón* (neut.) --> _yellow, golden yellow, reddish, brownish, blond_ (of unxeplained etymoloɡy). For Beekes:


			
				Robert Beekes Etymoloɡical Dictionary of Greek said:
			
		

> A remote connection with Lat. _cānus_ 'grey' has been supposed, but this remains gratuitous. The comparison with Etruscan _zamθic_, supposedly 'of gold', has little value (Heubeck _Würzb_. Jb. 4:2 (1949-1950): 202 compares Σκάμανδρος as well). The word may be Pre-Greek; cf. ξουθός***



***Classical adj. *«ξουθός, -θή, -θόν»** ksoutʰós* (masc.), *ksoutʰḗ* (fem.), *ksoutʰón* (neut.) --> _(among others) golden yellow, white, tawny_ (of unknown etymology too; ξανθός and ξουθός similarities have long been observed). Ιn the *Rhodian* dialect, ξουθός [k͡s̠uˈθo̞s̠] is the ginger coloured.

Edit: Just wanted to add that, in the ancient Macedonian calendar, *«Ξανθικός» Κsăntʰikós* (masc.) was the month mid-March - mid-April --> lit. _month of Xanthion_ after Xanthium Strumarium, a plant used by the Macedonians for dyeing the hair blond. It was a month dedicated to Apollo, who bore the epithet *«Ξανθικός»* *Κsăntʰikós*.


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## Rainbowlight

apmoy70 said:


> Ιn Greek it's *«ξανθός, -θή, -θό»* [k͡s̠anˈθo̞s̠] (masc.), [k͡s̠anˈθi] (fem.), [k͡s̠anˈθo̞] (neut.) < Classical adjective *«ξανθός, -θή, -θόν» ksăntʰós* (masc.), *ksăntʰḗ* (fem.), *ksăntʰón* (neut.) --> _yellow, golden yellow, reddish, brownish, blond_ (of unxeplained etymoloɡy). For Beekes:
> 
> 
> ***Classical adj. *«ξουθός, -θή, -θόν»** ksoutʰós* (masc.), *ksoutʰḗ* (fem.), *ksoutʰón* (neut.) --> _(among others) golden yellow, white, tawny_ (of unknown etymology too; ξανθός and ξουθός similarities have long been observed). Ιn the *Rhodian* dialect, ξουθός [k͡s̠uˈθo̞s̠] is the ginger coloured


Thank you so much. It seems to me that the difficulty in ascertaining the origin of the word only adds to its mystery.


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## Penyafort

In *Catalan*, the word for blond is _*ros *_(masculine) [ros], _*rossa *_(femenine) ['rosə]:

_un noi ros_ 'a blond boy', _una noia rossa_ 'a blond girl', _cabells rossos_ 'blond hair'​​It comes from Latin _russu(s)_, the word for "red" (compare Italian _rosso _"red" or Spanish _rojo, _from the derived _russeu_ "reddish")_._

The association of blond with reddish is not strange. In fact, in Aragonese, _*royo *_can be used for both'red' and 'blond'.

I'd say that the main difference between Northern and Southern Europe is that Southern Europeans would already call 'blond' some people who, from a Northern perspective, might be called 'light brown'. The most common natural blond hair in Southern Europe is usually in the dark blond to light brown spectrum.


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## Rainbowlight

Penyafort said:


> In *Catalan*, the word for blond is _*ros *_(masculine) [ros], _*rossa *_(femenine) ['rosə]:
> 
> _un noi ros_ 'a blond boy', _una noia rossa_ 'a blond girl', _cabells rossos_ 'blond hair'​​It comes from Latin _russu(s)_, the word for "red" (compare Italian _rosso _"red" or Spanish _rojo, _from the derived _russeu_ "reddish")_._
> 
> The association of blond with reddish is not strange. In fact, in Aragonese, _*royo *_can be used for both'red' and 'blond'.
> 
> I'd say that the main difference between Northern and Southern Europe is that Southern Europeans would already call 'blond' some people who, from a Northern perspective, might be called 'light brown'. The most common natural blond hair in Southern Europe is usually in the dark blond to light brown spectrum.


Thank you very much.


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## Awwal12

Rainbowlight said:


> I would like to know which is the word for "blond" in your language. I would also like to know if a difference can be made between the word "blond" (a male with blond hair) and "blonde", meaning a female with blond hair.


In Russian there are loanwords for a blond man (блондин blondín) and a blond woman (блондинка blondínka), but there's no convenient adjective for blond (except the atrociously colloquial блондинистый blondínistyi, which, frankly, sounds almost derogatory). Various more descriptive expressions are possible:
светлый (svétlyi "light"), about hair;
светловолосый (svetlovolósyi "light-haired"), about a person;
золотистый (zolotístyi "golden", "gold-ish"), about hair;
золотоволосый (zolotovolósyi "gold-haired");
etc.

Overall, half of the specific terms related to hair color in Russian are comparatively recent loans. The native adjectives used _specifically_ to describe hair color are just two:
рыжий (rýzhiy) - "red" (about hair), "red-haired";
русый (rúsyi) - describes comparatively unsaturated hair colors from pale brown to dark blond (and people with such hair); must be the most widespread color among ethnic Russians.


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## Rainbowlight

Awwal12 said:


> In Russian there are loanwords for a blond man (блондин blondín) and a blond woman (блондинка blondínka), but there's no convenient adjective for blond (except the atrociously colloquial блондинистый blondínistyi, which, frankly, sounds almost derogatory). Various more descriptive expressions are possible:
> светлый (svétlyi "light"), about hair;
> светловолосый (svetlovolósyi "light-haired"), about a person;
> золотистый (zolotístyi "golden", "gold-ish"), about hair;
> золотоволосый (zolotovolósyi "gold-haired");
> etc.
> 
> Overall, half of the specific terms related to hair color in Russian are comparatively recent loans. The native adjectives used _specifically_ to describe hair color are just two:
> рыжий (rýzhiy) - "red" (about hair), "red-haired";
> русый (rúsyi) - describes comparatively unsaturated hair colors from pale brown to dark blond (and people with such hair); must be the most widespread color among ethnic Russians.


Thank you *so* much for the amount of information.


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## סייבר־שד

In Spanish, the standard term is *rubio *_(masc.)_,* rubia *_(fem.)_.

As for your second question, I'm not aware of any such terms in Spanish.

On the other hand, there _is _another word for that in Mexican Spanish, my native variety: *güero *_(masc.), _*güera *_(fem.)_.
Here's what the Wiktionary has to say on its origins:

_"The Mexican word güero ultimately originates from the Spanish word huero (“empty”), from the phrase huevo huero (“an empty egg that was lost during incubation”). The phrase huevo huero became associated with a sick person, and from this association came the association with the color white."_

Yes, there are people with naturally-occurring blond hair in Mexico. I don't have any serious statistical data on this subject, but judging from what I see on a daily basis, I would say their numbers are not that large.
Such people would generally be referred to by using either of the terms I mentioned earlier, with *güero*, *güera *having likely, if not almost certainly, the upper hand.

It's also important to be aware that here in Mexico, at least, *güero* may also be used of people who _don't _have blond hair, but whose skin color is light, or at least perceived as such when compared to that of people with darker skin.
It's quite relative. For example, if I were, say, among a group of white people, I'd hardly be considered a *güero*, even though my skin color is not so dark, but a group of people with dark skin would likely call me *güero*, and yet my hair is not blond, either.

*Güero *is also a common way for sellers at places like tianguis (local mobile marketplaces here in Mexico) and fixed marketplaces to refer to their customers, and sometimes even regardless of the skin and hair color of the latter. For women, the diminutive form *güerita *is actually preferred in such contexts, regardless of their age.

Lastly, the alternative written forms *huero*, *huera* appear in the _"Diccionario de mexicanismos" _published by the Mexican Academy of the Language, though I'm not sure how widely employed they are. Incidentally, a similar, but opposite, phenomenon also occurs with words that start with *hu + vowel*, such as *huevo*, which also appears in the _"Diccionario de mexicanismos" _as *güevo*.


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## Rainbowlight

סייבר־שד said:


> In Spanish, the standard term is *rubio *_(masc.)_,* rubia *_(fem.)_.
> 
> As for your second question, I'm not aware of any such terms in Spanish.
> 
> On the other hand, there _is _another word for that in Mexican Spanish, my native variety: *güero *_(masc.), _*güera *_(fem.)_.
> Here's what the Wiktionary has to say on its origins:
> 
> _"The Mexican word güero ultimately originates from the Spanish word huero (“empty”), from the phrase huevo huero (“an empty egg that was lost during incubation”). The phrase huevo huero became associated with a sick person, and from this association came the association with the color white."_
> 
> Yes, there are people with naturally-occurring blond hair in Mexico. I don't have any serious statistical data on this subject, but judging from what I see on a daily basis, I would say their numbers are not that large.
> Such people would generally be referred to by using either of the terms I mentioned earlier, with *güero*, *güera *having likely, if not almost certainly, the upper hand.
> 
> It's also important to be aware that here in Mexico, at least, *güero* may also be used of people who _don't _have blond hair, but whose skin color is light, or at least perceived as such when compared to that of people with darker skin.
> It's quite relative. For example, if I were, say, among a group of white people, I'd hardly be considered a *güero*, even though my skin color is not so dark, but a group of people with dark skin would likely call me *güero*, and yet my hair is not blond, either.
> 
> *Güero *is also a common way for sellers at places like tianguis (local mobile marketplaces here in Mexico) and fixed marketplaces to refer to their customers, and sometimes even regardless of the skin and hair color of the latter. For women, the diminutive form *güerita *is actually preferred in such contexts, regardless of their age.
> 
> Lastly, the alternative written forms *huero*, *huera* appear in the _"Diccionario de mexicanismos" _published by the Mexican Academy of the Language, though I'm not sure how widely employed they are. Incidentally, a similar, but opposite, phenomenon also occurs with words that start with an *h*, such as *huevo*, which also appears in the _"Diccionario de mexicanismos" _as *güevo*.


¡Muchas gracias! : )


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## סייבר־שד

Well, now I feel like an _utter_ idiot. Would you believe I only now realized that your mother language is Spanish?...


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## Rainbowlight

סייבר־שד said:


> Well, now I feel like an _utter_ idiot. Would you believe I only now realized that your mother language is Spanish?...


Ha, ha, ha. There's absolutely no problem with that. Your English is excellent. : )


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## Rainbowlight

סייבר־שד said:


> Well, now I feel like an _utter_ idiot. Would you believe I only now realized that your mother language is Spanish?...


By the way, do you have any knowledge, no matter how scarce, of Náhuatl? I have several questions to ask. Maybe they should be formulated in the appropriate forum.


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## Welsh_Sion

You'll be delighted to know that where English sees the colour as slightly whitish (without being 'old'), and Spanish seems to go for a 'light brown/light red', my mother tongue tends to prefer ... 'yellow'.

*melyn golau*
yellow light
'light yellow'

*melynwyn*
yellow(-)white
'yellowish-white'

*gwyn-melynaidd*
white-yellowish
'yellowish white'

*golau*
light
'light'

You can also have the following colour for hair: *lliw hufen* 'cream coloured', *lliw gwellt* 'straw coloured', and *lliw aur* 'gold coloured'.

And for people the nouns for 'blond(e)' are *blondyn *(n.m.) and *blonden *(n.f.)


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## Rainbowlight

Welsh_Sion said:


> You'll be delighted to know that where English sees the colour as slightly whitish (without being 'old'), and Spanish seems to go for a 'light brown/light red', my mother tongue tends to prefer ... 'yellow'.
> 
> *melyn golau*
> yellow light
> 'light yellow'
> 
> *melynwyn*
> yellow(-)white
> 'yellowish-white'
> 
> *gwyn-melynaidd*
> white-yellowish
> 'yellowish white'
> 
> *golau*
> light
> 'light'
> 
> You can also have the following colour for hair: *lliw hufen* 'cream coloured', *lliw gwellt* 'straw coloured', and *lliw aur* 'gold coloured'.
> 
> And for people the nouns for 'blond(e)' are *blondyn*(n.m.) and *blonden *(n.f.)


I am absolutely delighted indeed! : )
Thank you so much for your help.


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## Welsh_Sion

I forgot to say that you can also refer to people's head with regards to their hair colour, too:

*Nia* ben aur*
Nia head gold
'Nia the golden-headed'

* Girl's first name


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## Rainbowlight

Welsh_Sion said:


> I forgot to say that you can also refer to people's head with regards to their hair colour, too:
> 
> *Nia* ben aur*
> Nia head gold
> 'Nia the golden-headed'
> 
> * Girl's first name


Thanks again! : )


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## AutumnOwl

In Swedish we have "blond", about a blond woman "blondin", and there's "blekt blondin" for someone with bleached hair. There is no special word for blond males. 
We also have "ljushårig" (light-haired), which I'm more likely to use than "blond". (There's also brunhårig, rödhårig, mörkhårig, and svarthårig - brown-, red-, dark- and black-haired).

There's the old "lintott" (linen fluffy) (towhead in English), used for small children, for older and grown-ups "linhårig/linblond" (linen-haired), when the hair is naturally this blond (common among children in Scandinavia and Finland, but usually darkens when older):
Emil i Lönneberga - BUFF Malmö 
Paroles et traductions – Agnetha Fältskog - FR
Then there are "rågblond" (rye-blond), hair the colour of a field of rye, natural or coloured:
Rågblond hårfärg
Askblond (ash-blond) a cooler blond :
https://www.michaelofrisorerna.se/askblond-ashblonde-11/
Mörkblond (dark-blond), here in the photo on the right the hair is coloured back to its original colour:
https://www.michaelofrisorerna.se/morkblond-3/


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## סייבר־שד

Rainbowlight said:


> By the way, do you have any knowledge, no matter how scarce, of Náhuatl? I have several questions to ask. Maybe they should be formulated in the appropriate forum.


I'm afraid to say that my knowledge of Náhuatl is woefully scarce, to the point of being almost non-existent.
Which is doubly embarrassing, considering it's the most spoken indigenous language here in Mexico.

Then again, even today, it can be somewhat difficult to find good courses to learn the language, and the fact there's no standard variety to speak of makes matters more complicated.

Indeed, there's always the *Other languages *section for any queries you may have regarding Nahuatl, though sadly it has been swamped of late with posts about Aramaic and Syriac. Not that I have anything against either of the two, quite the contrary, but it's not exactly encouraging to post anything there regarding any other language, knowing it will get crushed under literally dozens of posts of Aramaic and Syriac in no time.


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## Rainbowlight

AutumnOwl said:


> In Swedish we have "blond", about a blond woman "blondin", and there's "blekt blondin" for someone with bleached hair. There is no special word for blond males.
> We also have "ljushårig" (light-haired), which I'm more likely to use than "blond". (There's also brunhårig, rödhårig, mörkhårig, and svarthårig - brown-, red-, dark- and black-haired).
> 
> There's the old "lintott" (linen fluffy) (towhead in English), used for small children, for older and grown-ups "linhårig/linblond" (linen-haired), when the hair is naturally this blond (common among children in Scandinavia and Finland, but usually darkens when older):
> Emil i Lönneberga - BUFF Malmö
> Paroles et traductions – Agnetha Fältskog - FR
> Then there are "rågblond" (rye-blond), hair the colour of a field of rye, natural or coloured:
> Rågblond hårfärg
> Askblond (ash-blond) a cooler blond :
> https://www.michaelofrisorerna.se/askblond-ashblonde-11/
> Mörkblond (dark-blond), here in the photo on the right the hair is coloured back to its original colour:
> https://www.michaelofrisorerna.se/morkblond-3/


Thank you so much for the detailed explanation! : )


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## Rainbowlight

סייבר־שד said:


> I'm afraid to say that my knowledge of Náhuatl is woefully scarce, to the point of being almost non-existent.
> Which is doubly embarrassing, considering it's the most spoken indigenous language here in Mexico.
> 
> Then again, even today, it can be somewhat difficult to find good courses to learn the language, and the fact there's no standard variety to speak of makes matters more complicated.
> 
> Indeed, there's always the *Other languages *section for any queries you may have regarding Nahuatl, though sadly it has been swamped of late with posts about Aramaic and Syriac. Not that I have anything against either of the two, quite the contrary, but it's not exactly encouraging to post anything there regarding any other language, knowing it will get crushed under literally dozens of posts of Aramaic and Syriac in no time.


Thank you so much for your help. I'm certainly surprised to learn of the difficulties of learning Náhuatl in contemporary Mexico. I would have thought there were formal Academies of the language.

Thanks again for your answer.


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## AndrasBP

The Hungarian word for 'blond' is '*szőke*', pronounced /ˈsøːkɛ/.
It doesn't have a masculine or feminine form as there are no grammatical genders in Hungarian.
It's an old word of Finno-Ugric origin, formed from a root that means something like 'light' or 'clear' in other related languages.
However, its etymology is not transparent for Hungarian speakers, i.e. it doesn't look like any other Hungarian word that speakers could associate it with.



Rainbowlight said:


> I'm also curious about to know if the used word is also similar to others that, intriguingly, can be associated with blond hair, at least in the English language. I'm referring to words such as "blend" (meaning _to mix_) or even "blind" (*not* in the sense of _visually impaired_, *but* in the sense of _hidden_ or _concealed_, as dying human hair blond sometimes implies the "covering" of a previous, natural hair colour.)


These associations look contrived to me. I'm not a native speaker of English but I don't think natives make *any *connection between 'blond' and 'blend/blind/bland'.


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## Rainbowlight

AndrasBP said:


> The Hungarian word for 'blond' is '*szőke*', pronounced /ˈsøːkɛ/.
> It doesn't have a masculine or feminine form as there are no grammatical genders in Hungarian.
> It's an old word of Finno-Ugric origin, formed from a root that means something like 'light' or 'clear' in other related languages.
> However, its etymology is not transparent for Hungarian speakers, i.e. it doesn't look like any other Hungarian word that speakers could associate it with.
> 
> 
> These associations look contrived to me. I'm not a native speaker of English but I don't think natives make *any *connection between 'blond' and 'blend/blind/bland'.


Thank you so much for your help. : )

I actually find associations useful. They are obviously different words and yet there is what I think is an interesting similarity between their meaning. I hope it's clear that I am in no way making any kind of etymological statement. Thanks for stating your point.


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## סייבר־שד

Rainbowlight said:


> Thank you so much for your help. I'm certainly surprised to learn of the difficulties of learning Náhuatl in contemporary Mexico. I would have thought there were formal Academies of the language.
> 
> Thanks again for your answer.


Yes, the landscape is quite bleak here when it comes to learning indigenous languages. While the government has shown slightly more interest in the matter recently, there's still _a lot _of work to do. 
I would say your safest bet to learn any of them would be to go and live among an indigenous community, but even that is not always so simple, because not all communities are open and willing to accept anyone into their midst, and for various reasons.


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