Monday, March 15, 2010

A blonde by any other name

Just by way of extending John's recent foray into linguistics, here's another lovely German neologism that our Anglophone friends might consider worth adopting:

"Verhaltensblond."

That is, "behaviourally blonde."

Apparently the term has been around since 2000, but that was a time in my life when I was busy doing other things. In them days I probably would still have found this term sort of sexist. How one learns to relax in merely a decade! From where I am right now this strikes me as an absolutely lovely expression. So apt and true! How many "Verhaltensblonde" do you know? I know at least one bald one, he, he, he ...

3 comments:

Frau Mahlzahn said...

Kind of reminds me of some dialogue I had with my husband, in which I kindly reminded him that he was the blonde one among us, and he said: "Blond ist eine innere Einstellung..."

If there had been a Scheidungsanwalt around, he would have made the Geschäft seines Lebens, *rofl*...

But actually, yes, verhaltensblond is a great expression which just made its way into my vocabulary.

So long,
Corinna

Dale said...

I was a dotty toe-headed youth -- even white in a few summers' depths -- but now all my thinking is brown-haired.

All of which is prelude to saying, simply ... guilty.

Verhaltensblond -- it seems so much more elegant in German.

Mademoiselle Catherine said...

First, I read "Verhaltensblöd" and wondered what the hell it might mean... But "Verhaltensblond" is definitely a pretty good expression.
I am, sometimes. But only sometimes. I hope!