Struwwelpetern.
/ˈʃtrʊvəlpeɪtə//ˈstruːəlpiːtə/ Used attributively to designate (a person with) long, thick, and unkempt hair. Also transferred. Also in combinations, as Struwwelpeter-haired. Cf. shockhead n. and adj..
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > hair > types of hair > [noun] > bushy or thick > person having
touslehead1900
Struwwelpeter1909
1909 W. J. Locke Septimus iii. 37 He passed his hand through his Struwelpeter hair.
1920 E. Sitwell Wooden Pegasus 78 As he rides on his rocking-horse All Struwwelpeter-haired.
1929 ‘G. Daviot’ Man in Queue vii. 82 The artist's eyebrows disappeared in the Struwwelpeter hair.
1958 P. Kemp No Colours or Crest x. 228 The Commissar was a small, squat man with very bright eyes and a Struwwelpeter shock of black hair.
1959 C. Spry Favourite Flowers xxv. 188 The flowers [of Anemone alpina] were over and I saw for the first time what Mr. Drake calls the ‘Struwwelpeter’ seed heads.
1973 R. W. Clark Einstein xi. 269 William Rothenstein, making notes for his remarkable portrait of Einstein who is presented as a Struwelpeter character, smiling from an aureole of almost electrified hair.
Derivatives
Struwwelpeterdom n. (of hair) the condition of being thick and untidy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > hair > types of hair > [noun] > bushy or thick > state of being
thickness1398
bushiness1730
Struwwelpeterdom1909
1909 W. J. Locke Septimus xxii. 351 His hair..reached the climax of Struwelpeterdom.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1909