Blond vs. Blonde
Did you know there is a difference? I didn't until today.
My students were reading silently when one of then asked, "Ms. C? I thought that blond had an 'e' on the end?"
I thought for a second before replying, "I've seen it both ways, but I don't think there's a difference. Keep reading and I'll look it up."
So I got out the dictionary and here's what I found: The word "blond" refers to the color, whether it is of hair, wood, or whatever. "Blonde," however, refers only to a woman or a girl with blond hair. A man with blond hair is a blond (without the "e"), though. It even said that some consider the word "blonde" to be a sexist term and have dropped the "e" in all usages.
So, I am a blonde because I have blond hair. Guess it's true that you learn something new every day.
How's that for day one of NaBloPoMo?
My students were reading silently when one of then asked, "Ms. C? I thought that blond had an 'e' on the end?"
I thought for a second before replying, "I've seen it both ways, but I don't think there's a difference. Keep reading and I'll look it up."
So I got out the dictionary and here's what I found: The word "blond" refers to the color, whether it is of hair, wood, or whatever. "Blonde," however, refers only to a woman or a girl with blond hair. A man with blond hair is a blond (without the "e"), though. It even said that some consider the word "blonde" to be a sexist term and have dropped the "e" in all usages.
So, I am a blonde because I have blond hair. Guess it's true that you learn something new every day.
How's that for day one of NaBloPoMo?
posted by Charlie at 5:44 PM
22 Comments:
I did know that there's a difference. I learned in my college copy editing class. But I never remember which one to use. Kind of like grey vs. gray.
wow! this is great. i never knew the difference till today.
wow. i didn't know this! i thought it was just a matter of preference.
Writers of English will still distinguish between the masculine blond and the feminine blonde and, as such, it is one of the few adjectives in English with separate masculine and feminine forms.
The Microsoft Works dictionary tells when to use the words. I remember that it said that "blond" is always used for boys, but in some cases "blonde" is used for girls. I think "blonde" refers to the person, while "blond" refers to the color. Like "she has blond hair, but she is a blonde"
I could have the two mixed up, though.
Blonde has 4 definitions: 1) adj (of hair) fair or pale yellow 2) adj. having fair hair and a light complexion; 3) noun. a woman with blonde hair 4) noun. the colour of blonde hair.
Blond is the masculine form.
These different spellings are not meant to be offensively sexist or insulting, but are used for literary clarity. For example, when I read 'the blonde student' I automatically know she is female, whereas when I read 'the blond student' I know that he is male.
The same may be said for brunette (feminine) ve brunet (silent 't', masculine).
As for the comment about grey vs gray; this has nothing to do with gender; grey is the Canadian/British English spelling; gray is American.
I agree with Snype here. I was taught that blonde is feminine and being Canadian, that grey is how we spell it up here.
Blonde/Blond and also Brunette/Brunet -- they are some of the last gender specific words left in the (English) language.
As for Grey/Gray that's just a spelling issue no different than honour/honor. I use UK spellings normally because, well, that's how I was taught when I was learning. Drove my teachers nuts, I'm sure since I'm an American.
Good job copying from Wikipedia, Aragorn! :p
yeah, I just now looked it up online, since I didn't really get it.
This is actually a matter of declension. The word has a gender specific ending. Common in Latin and other languages, odd in English.
I just learned this today as well.
I Googled this question today for my own blog today, actually. And your post came up in the search. Cute dog =).
Thanks for that! I always wondered the difference. Since I study French, I always assumed the 'e' was to signify a female, but I was never sure since we don't gender specify in English. I appreciate this post and I'll remember it and share with my other spelling and grammar obsessed nerd friends. :)
This post came in handy for me as well when I posted a description of a pic posted on FB by a friend of mine from 1973. I was the "blonde". Thanks for the clarification!
Very nice! Thanks for clearing this up for me. I've been wondering about this for years but, never cared to look it up till now. haha
Awesome!!!! Wow..am I glad I found this site!
The word is french, and it is an adjective, therefore, it must be conjugated to match the word it is describing. And in English that carries over somewhat, girls are feminine obviously and so they use 'blonde', while objects are inanimate and given 'blond' and so on, with boy being 'blond' in following masculine form.
@Jen, blond vs blonde is not like gray vs grey because these are not a difference in meaning as in the case of the former, but rather a difference in country. In America they spell it as gray, but in Britain it is grey. Much like many American vs British spellings differ:
Gray is a color (American)
Grey is a colour (British
I'm writing a story now and one of my male characters has blond hair so I did a quick Google search of "blond v blonde" and this was the first thing that popped up! So just wanted to say that this was helpful and thanks!
Thank you for this! I'm reading a book right now and the author keeps switching back and forth between the two spellings and it's driving me crazy! I googled blond vs. blonde and your post came up. :)
We were always taught one is a noun and the other is an adjective -- which was how we learned brunette v. brunet, too -- I never knew it was gender specific, though!
Wao. . . Dis is plus-ultra .at last i knw the diffrencies btw blond nd Blonde. . I now knw that is genderically involvd
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