Hello,
After the elegant history of vogue last week I’m taking a different angle with the hairy history of disheveled (or dishevelled if you prefer) this week.
Disheveled, having a messy personal appearance, appeared in English in the early 1400s but back then it was all about the hair. Manners may maketh the man according to Eton and other colleges, but the hairdressers in those days would disagree.
Let’s hold up the mirror to disheveled’s roots first. Its original meaning in English was to be without dressed hair. There was also another adjective at the same time – dischevele – which meant bare-headed. Both came from Old French deschevele (bare headed or shaven headed). That came from the verb descheveler (to disarrange the hair). That formed from des (apart) and chevel (hair). Chevel originated in Latin capillus (hair), the same root that gives us capillary, but that’s a word for another day.
The meaning of disheveled was entirely about hair for quite some time. It described hair that was hanging loose, or having a neglected appearance. This was an era when letting your hair down only happened in the privacy of your own home, hence its association with relaxation. Women, after girlhood, wore their hair up and usually under a cap of some variety. Even the men paid attention to the dressing of their hair. Sailors were so keen to keep their hair tied back that they’d apply tar to their plaits, giving them the nickname of “tars”.
Disheveled gained the modern meaning of a messy or untidy appearance from around 1600 and now most of us wouldn’t even think of it being exclusive to hair. Plus some more recent hairstyles are deliberately disheveled. I doubt they would have liked the idea of “bed-head” back in the 1400s.
Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace (@Wordfoolery)
p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder.
Wordfoolery 