Baldpate

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A man or person who has a completely hairless head ; a natural elevation such as a mountain or hill with no vegetation at its peak ; a mystery novel written by Earl Derr Biggers
2. Someone lacking hair on their scalp ; a bare-topped hill or mountain, often covered in grass or rocks instead of trees ; a detective story authored by Earl Derr Biggers
3. An individual characterized by a smooth, hair-free scalp ; a summit notable for its treeless, exposed nature ; a work of fiction in the mystery genre penned by Earl Derr Biggers

Etymology: "Baldpate" is a compound of "bald" and "pate." "Pate" is an older English word for the top or crown of the head, and "bald" in its original sense meant having white or bare patches, so the combined word describes a bare-topped head. Its literal meaning was a person whose scalp is hairless, and that sense is still the one most readers would recognise first. The word then extended to a bare, treeless hilltop, a summit whose exposed crown looks like a shaved head. The mystery novel "Seven Keys to Baldpate" by Earl Derr Biggers, which took its title from a mountain inn of that name, gave the word a third and quite different life as a title for fiction.

Synonyms: bald, hairless, pate, shaved, shorn

Antonyms: hairy, coiffed, covered, shaggy, furry