long-hairedadj.
/ˌlɒŋˈhɛːd/, U.S. /ˈlɔŋˈˌhɛrd/, /ˈlɑŋˈˌhɛrd/ I. Uses relating to people.
1. Of a person or (occasionally) a part of the body: having long hair.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > hair > hair of head > [adjective] > having long
long-hairedc1405
long-locked1577
c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Miller's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 550 He felte a thyng al rogh and longe yherd.
c1450 Alphabet of Tales (1904) I. 187 Our Lord apperid..in lyknes of a pure man; & he was lang-harid, & he prayed hym þat he wold for charite cutt it shorter.
1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Longe heared, acrocomus.
1630 J. Sharpe Triall Protestant Priuate Spirit iv. 77 The Ghost at Athens related by Pliny, to be leane faced, long haired, and hands and feet chained.
1706 E. Ward Hudibras Redivivus II. viii. 11 Their Faces, Whose Wrinkles, Lines, and long-hair'd Moles, Betray'd the Baseness of their Souls.
1743 J. Davidson tr. Virgil Æneid i. 65 in Wks. Virgil I. Long-haired Iopas next tunes his gilded Lyre.
1831 Portfolio July 242/2 He was foster-father to the long-haired Comala.
1887 ‘Valmaer’ Lawyer's Code of Ethics vi. 63 A long-haired man with a smoothly shaved face, looks something like an old woman.
1959 Life 15 June 2/2 What is that bald-headed man doing among 30 long-haired beauties?
2013 Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 26 Oct. (Television section) 2 The long-haired stand-up from Newcastle is fast becoming a household name.
2. Designating a person of a type regarded as characteristically having long hair; of or relating to such a person.In most, but not all, cases the person thus designated has long hair, and so it is sometimes difficult to tell whether the reference is to the individual (sense 1) or the type.
a. Designating a person for whom long hair is a marker of ethnic, cultural, or political affiliation, as for (in early medieval times) the Germanic peoples of northern and western Europe, spec. the Merovingian kings.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of Europe > native or inhabitant of ancient or medieval Europe > native or inhabitant of medieval states > [adjective]
Lotharingian1635
long-haired?1645
Neustrian1861
Ottonian1896
1605 W. Camden Remaines ii. 10 He alluded to the baldnesse of Iulius Caesar,..and to the manner of the French in that time: among whom long bushie haire was the signale mark of Maiestie,..when as all subiects were rounded, and the Kings only long haired.]
?1645 (title) A gagge for long-hair'd rattle-heads who revile all civill round-heads.
1660 W. Hamilton tr. B. F. de Pagan Hist. & Geogr. Descr. Country & River of Amazones xx. 52 As well the men as the women wear their hair long even unto their girding place; whence they were presently called the Chevelues, or long-haired people [Fr. dont ils furent incontinant nommes Cheuelus].
1771 tr. Lady M. W. Montagu Let. in Lady M. W. Montagu Lett. written during Trav. (1837) II. lviii. 59 The whites, the woolly and the long-haired blacks, the small eyed Tartars and Chinese, the beardless Brasilians.
1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall III. xxx. 150 A military council was assembled of the long-haired chiefs of the Gothic nation.
1861 M. Oliphant tr. C. F. de Montalembert Monks of West II. vi. i. 226 The superstitious veneration, the pagan idolatry, which the Franks entertained for that long-haired dynasty [Fr. cette dynastie aux longs cheveux].
1871 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest (1876) IV. xvii. 92 The..long-haired children of the north.
1962 J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (title) The long-haired kings.
2008 I. H. Garipzanov Symbolic Lang. of Authority in Carolingian World ii. 44 After overthrowing the Frankish royal dynasty of the long-haired kings, the Carolingians did not have a tradition of legitimate kingship.
2013 H. Hill Escaping Viet Nam 144 The sight of this long-haired tribe and the sound of an unfamiliar dialect were stark reminders of our long journey.
b. Designating an intellectual, aesthete, or artist, esp. a classical musician or aficionado of classical music; of or relating to classical (as opposed to popular) music and musicians.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > intellectual superiority > [adjective]
intellectual1732
bluestocking1832
long-haired1842
intellectualist1857
high-browed1876
highbrow1884
intellectualistic1887
minority1930
egg-headed1957
eggheadish1963
society > leisure > the arts > music > musician > [adjective] > classical
long-haired1943
1842 London Sat. Jrnl. 21 May 243/1 The long-haired musician never acknowledges Rossini.
1872 ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch I. ii. xix. 340 Romanticism..was fermenting still..in certain long-haired German artists at Rome.
1881 W. S. Gilbert Patience i. 11 The peripatetics Of long haired aesthetics, Are very much more to their taste.
1914 C. Mackenzie Sinister St. II. xiii. 769 After a year with long-haired students I want a change.
1922 S. Lewis Babbitt xxi. 260 I don't care a rap for all this long-haired music. I'd rather listen to a good jazz band any time than to some piece by Beethoven.
1935 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Nov. 71/3 Straight or commercial musicians are often derisively called salon-men or long-haired boys.
1943 G. W. Willis Tangleweed xii. 174 It ain't a song. It's a composition. Long-haired.
1955 J. Cannan Long Shadows iii. 33 The long-haired fraternity hold the art of the camera in contempt—it rivals their daubs.
1959 Times 22 Nov. 5/6 Since the result of the general election..some of the long-haired boys in our movement have been holding inquiries and assessing blame for our defeat on everyone but themselves.
1963 Listener 7 Feb. 264/2 It [sc. jazz] has begun an unwise flirtation with ‘long-haired music’.
1965 M. Morse Unattached i. 59 Howard..found the atmosphere so sombre, long-haired and tedious that he quickly left.
1999 Salt Lake Tribune (Nexis) 21 Nov. d1 Somewhere between ‘long-haired’ music and ‘pops,’ between an evening at the symphony and an evening at home with the CD player.
c. Designating a hippie or a beatnik; of or relating to such a person. Cf. longhair n. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > lack of social communication or relations > separation or isolation > [adjective] > outside conventional society
Bohemian1846
Bohemic1874
Greenwich Village1919
boho1958
hippie1959
outsiderish1959
outsiderly1959
beatniky1964
long-haired1964
neo-hippie1980
1964 Times 28 Jan. 6/3 There were the beatniks—‘a long-haired, peculiar type’—and others who gathered round the beatniks.
1967 Billboard 6 May sf28 The management side of the long-haired movement.
1975 J. Symons Three Pipe Probl. ii. 15 Sir Pountney was..opposed..to long-haired students, and to spineless intellectuals.
2004 C. Wollenberg in M. Eymann & C. Wollenberg What's going On? 18/1 Reagan won the election by defending patriotism..while condemning hippies and long-haired protesters.
3. slang (chiefly British and Australian). Designating a person's girlfriend or wife, or any young woman considered as a potential romantic partner. Frequently in long-haired chum, long-haired mate, etc. Now historical.
ΚΠ
1882 Queenslander 18 Nov. 699/2 There's no mate of yours here—none but this good man's long-haired mate.
1890 A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang II. 27/2 Long-haired chum (tailors), a young woman, a young lady friend.
1917 ‘Taffrail’ Off Shore 92 Some sort of a friendship, platonic or otherwise, with a ‘long-haired’ pal.
1944 Mirror (Perth, Austral.) 17 June 11/2 In a dark and lonely house at Margaret River you stumble on the guilty husband with his long-haired pal.
1971 T. Murphy Whistle in Dark i. 27 One of your long-haired ones is waiting up the road.
2011 A. Monaghan Soldier's Return viii. 171 What about that girl you had? Your long-haired chum. She still on the scene?
II. Uses relating to animals.
4. Designating an animal, esp. a domestic cat or dog, with long hair or fur. Cf. longhair n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Felidae (feline) > felis domesticus (cat) > [adjective] > of breeds
Angola1765
long-haired1821
Persian1828
chestnut-brown1958
1681 H. More Plain Expos. Daniel 80 That hirsute or long-haired Goat.
1754 J. Hill Urania sig. M4v/1 [Canis Minor] The figure is a very natural one, that of a shock or long-haired spaniel.
1799 A. Young Gen. View Agric. County Lincoln 381 The common breed [of pig] of the country is the lop eared, long haired, coarse, but improved by the black.
1821 E. Griffith Descr. Vertebrated Animals: Carnivora 57 The varieties of the domestic cat are considerable in number: as..a beautiful long-haired species, called the Angora cat.
1871 R. Pearson in Field 13 May 386/2 It would much simplify the matter by calling them the ‘Yorkshire blue and tan long-haired terrier’.
1889 H. Weir Our Cats 16 Long-haired cats..are very diversified, both in form, colour, and the quality of the hair.
1926 Econ. Geogr. 2 525/2 Sheep, goats, alpaca and similar long-haired and long-wooled ruminants present breeding material.
1970 Dog World 6 Nov. 1739/1 Munsterlander setters... A long-haired dog, always black and white, who will point game and retrieve it.
2010 Your Cat Feb. 27/3 The first longhaired cats probably emerged from the area around Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Persia (Iran) centuries ago.
III. Uses relating to things.
5. Of a brush or similar implement: having long bristles, hair, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > equipment for painting or drawing > [adjective] > type of brush
long-haired1688
filbert1950
1688 G. Parker & J. Stalker Treat. Japaning 2 You must procure Pencils to draw with... The longest haired Pencils I esteem the best for this use.
1738 J. F. Fritsch tr. G. de Lairesse Art of Painting v. iii. 198 Take a long-hair'd Fitch, and make the Strokes as close as the Veins of the Water run, taking Care, not to strike out too much of the Out-line.
1807 J. Jones Pros & Cons, for Cupid & Hymen 220 Lo! I resign the buskin, to resume The mop, the duster, and the long-hair'd broom.
1883 M. E. James How to Decorate 12 A very long-haired sable brush (technically called a rigger)..derives its odd name from marine painters, who with such brushes delineate the cordage of ships.
1914 M. Klein By Nippon's Lotus Ponds ii. 27 We had to strongly remonstrate against his using a long-haired duster which, in his shop, he has whipped over the skull of every ‘Tom, Dick and Harry’.
1962 W. C. Seitz & J. Levy A. Gorky iv. 34 Harold Rosenberg recounts Gorky's introduction to the thin, long-haired brush known as a ‘liner’, used by sign painters.
2013 C. Cook Time Flies vi. 40 I searched the garage, finally settling on two relatively clean brooms and a long-haired mop.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.c1405