Brunettes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person with dark brown hair, often referring to women
2. A term used to describe a female having hair color that ranges from light to deep brown
3. Often embodying a stereotype or styles associated with darker-haired individuals

Etymology: The plural "brunettes" simply follows the singular "brunette," which English borrowed from French, where it is the feminine form of "brunet," meaning a dark-haired man. Before it described hair, the French root "brun" meant "brown," and it traces back to a Frankish word, not to Latin, which is why it sits beside its doublet "burnet," a plant name with the same colour root. The feminine ending does the work here. French "-ette" is a diminutive-style suffix, so "brunette" literally carries the sense of a little or slightly brown woman, a gendered pairing that French formed by adding that suffix to the masculine "brunet." English took the pattern whole, so the word still signals both a colour and a gender in a single form.

Synonyms: dark-haired women

Antonyms: blondes