Since when is "blonde" incorrect?

[kentauros]

In the four (or so) decades that I've been spelling that word, it has always been with the 'e' at the end. Now spellcheck and the various online dictionaries say otherwise.

Who made this decision? And why do they say it's wrong? :shrug:

"Blond" just looks wrong. It looks "unfinished" as a word.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. Dan Quayle?

is that you?

:hide:

[kentauros]

2. I'm sorry, I don't get the reference.

I know of some of his other gaffs, but not whatever one to which you are referring. Care to elaborate?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. see below. n/t

[MerryBlooms]

4. lol, he says potatoe and I say potato, let's call the whole thing Quayle.

[kentauros]

7. Well, "potatoe" IS just plain wrong.

But "until recently" (according to the online etymological dictionary) "blond" is correct and the long-established "blonde" isn't. Who decided it isn't and how long ago is "recently"?

[MerryBlooms]

3. Blond(e) feminine. Blond, masculine. n/t

[kentauros]

6. So, it shouldn't be incorrect.

And yet, my spellcheck AND the online dictionaries say it is. So, who's right?

[TorchTheWitch]

9. Blonde/feminine - Blond/masculine

It's a French word, therefore it's feminine/masculine usages should be correctly used. I hate it when we take words from other languages and spell or say them however we like. I really hate it that when we use words from other languages that use masculine/feminine spellings or pronunciations we always default to the masculine and not just when no gender is specified in context.

[kentauros]

10. I understand about the gender of the words.

"Conjugating the verb" is coming back to me now from high school Latin ;)

Still, I know I use the "blonde" spelling interchangeably, due to being brought up that with the 'e' is the proper spelling for all uses. I'm just vexed that somehow in the last decade (or however recent) the 'e' has been dropped. My guess is laziness for the primary reason and not one of gender specifics.

[SteppingRazor]

14. I don't think it's laziness. Dropping the "e" is the same thing...

as using police officer instead of policeman, firefighter instead of fireman, etc. And these gender-neutral terms are also fairly recent developments.

[RebelOne]

20. The above poster is correct.

Blonde for female and blond for male. I am a copy editor, so I sort of know what I am talking about.

[freshwest]

21. Thank you for saving the letter 'e' for us.

[RebelOne]

31. I am a blonde also (female) and that is my letter "e." n/t

[SteppingRazor]

13. True, but getting more and more antiquated by the day.

I generally use "blond" on all references.

[Ineeda]

8. I alway use the 'e', and dammit, I always will. (for women)

However, it's gender specific. See: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/05/the-words-blond-and-blonde-are-not-wholly-synonymous/
and from the same article, brunet and brunette are also gender specific. Who knew?

[kentauros]

12. I've never even seen "brunet"

and I think if I hadn't seen it here first, I'd have mentally pronounced it as "bru-nay" :crazy: Its alternate spelling made me also think of "claret" and then on to "blonde ale". In their description, they call them "golden blond" yet almost every single brand uses "blonde".

It's probably just all an American thing...

[Bake]

11. Mrs. Bake is blonde, so I'm staying outta this.

Whatever I say will be wrong. Sigh. I'm used to it.

:hi:

Bake

[Tikki]

15. Just spell it 'Blondie'...at least everyone will know..

you mean sexy with a great voice.


Tikki

[RedCloud]

23. You mean it's not "blondie schmondie"?

:silly:

[Gormy Cuss]

16. Blond has always been the preferred form for the adjective.

Blond or blonde as noun forms were used as gender-specifics. So it's "She's a blonde" but "She has beautiful blond hair." At least that's what I remember. :P


eta: this thread made me think of the late DUer blondeatlast. ;(

[freshwest]

17. Hope you're right. That's how I write it.

[MorningGlow]

24. Not according to my dictionary

"Blonde" is listed as an adjective OR a noun when referring to the yalla haircolor of a female.

[Gormy Cuss]

30. Actually, that's consistent. I wrote that "blond" is the preferred form

but it's not incorrect to add the e when it's an adjective, just not typical.

[freshwest]

18. I've noticed the dictionaries are on the 'dumb down' trend. If the Brit can handle our spelling and

vice versa, pay it no mind.

I just deleted a dictionary bookmark for changing into some inane refererence dump. Full of cartoons that had nothing to do with the meanings, some obscene pictures that weren't related, and periodical references to things that clearly weren't written by English speaking people.

I think they started using some part of Google, which seems to give a lot of results in Chinese for some searches. So who's trying to rule English now, I don't know.

:rant:

[frogmarch]

19. Mary is a blonde because she has blond hair.

Steve has blond hair too, but no one calls him a blonde. Men are never called blondes. If they were, they'd be the butt of blonde jokes, just as Mary and her blond women friends often are.

[kentauros]

25. Visually, "blond" still looks "wrong".

I suppose if an editor corrects me on it with regards to genders, then I'll change it, but I still like how "blonde" looks as the proper spelling :D

[pitohui]

22. it isn't incorrect if you're referring to a female

some people now don't like "special words" that are different for male and female, such as actors and actresses, they are now all actors

this blonde has no reason to believe that i would suddenly be taken seriously or have equal rights if you spell it blond but whatever, if someone thinks it might help, i guess it can't hurt

[kentauros]

26. However,

this whole thread started because my browser's spellchecker underlined "blonde" as wrong, and I knew it absolutely wasn't. I couldn't figure out how such a common, well-used word could suddenly be spelled incorrectly when it hadn't been for ages...

[geardaddy]

27. Bill Gates decided, that's who.

I agree with you, "blonde" seems correct.

[kentauros]

28. That's actually believable!

}(

Although I use Opera for my browser, it is on an XP machine. Do the rest of the browsers out there flag blonde as wrongly spelled, too? What about on Macs and Linux systems?

[geardaddy]

29. I don't know.

I'm sure there's some standard dictionary that most spellcheckers use, but I'm unsure of the other browsers, since I use IE.

[trackfan]

32. That the blonde, and her brother, the blond, have blond hair, goes without saying. n/t

[kentauros]

33. I know that now.

Nonetheless, it still doesn't look right, even if it is. I'll just stick with the 'e' for all and I don't care what the spellchecker (or everyone else) sez :P

[MiddleFingerMom]

34. Bonde... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Jane Bonde. n/t

[kentauros]

35. You noticed that, too?

I think that's another reason I don't like "blond"; it looks too much like "Bond" ;)

Welcome back, by the way! :hi: (shows how much I pay attention to the Lounge and DU these days...)

[applegrove]

36. Natural blonds will be extinct in 200 years they say. Perhaps they are

slowly dropping letters from the word as it happens?

[kentauros]

37. So, the next letter to go will be the 'd'

making it "blon". After that, they'll change the o to an 'a' and extend the riser on the 'n' to an 'h', right? :P

[applegrove]

38. LOL!