It seems obvious that 'skinhead' is not a hair style since there is no hair *involved.
Skinhead has also become, for the less informed, a representation of specific political affiliation, which is just as foolish as equating dreadlocks with Rastafarians.
A Janus word is one that has opposite or nearly opposite meanings.Cleave, for example, means to come close (cleave to one's bosom) or split apart, as in meat cleaver.
I'd have to go with i) skinhead cause, technically, it doesn't actual involve hair.
NOT a Janus word?
All I know is that ii) cleave is not one word. We've got two completely different words that just happen to be spelled the same in Modern English. They come from different IE roots and were spelled differently as recently as a thousand years ago.
Maybe it seems that way to the person who wrote the quiz. Or maybe they are trying to fool Jess into picking "gaffe", when they feel the answer is "cleave" (for the pedantic reason that Faldage stated above). What else can gaffe mean besides "socially awkward or tactless act" (courtesy of Webster)?
It's a hairstyle only in the negative sense, but a hair weave uses someone else's hair so who's to know which? And besides which, it's more a technique to make it look like you've got more hair than you really do and can be incorporated into any number of hair styles.
Gaffe is only one word but still has only one definition (at least according to M-W on line) so it's parbly the answer. Cleave and cleave notwithstanding.
For all the good it did us. It's like that old one about the word that changes pronunciation when you capitalize it. When I try to bring up the one about the word that changes spelling when you capitalize it everybody ignores me.
faldage baits: the one about the word that changes spelling when you capitalize it
please, share it ~ i'm curious!
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i'm not sure about "hair weave" ~ it might also mean what's been described above (having someone else's hair added to your own), but around here we call that "extensions", and a "weave" is when they wrap pieces of your hair in foil and bleach them, for a 'textured' look.
and speaking of hair, where on earth has rapunzel gone?? i miss her.
You know the one that changes pronunciation is Polish and polish. Of course they are no more the same word than are cleave and cleave or Russian and rushin'.
Dreadlocks = a style Skinhead = a person with a distinctive feature of having a head that looks hairless or skinned, but not the style itself Hairweave = a broad category that would subsume many styles Bunches = never heard of
I'd eliminate both hairweave and skinhead right off the bat and say that it had been a trick question!
Braided regards, WordWarhorse, m. m.
PS: When are we ever gonna find out about jobsworth and all that jazz?
I'm with wordwind, I know what dreadlocks are, hair weave, skinhead, but don't know about bunches. If someone can explain bunches I'd go with skinhead because it's a lack of hair style, otherwise I'm voting for bunches.
Well, according to the "Times-Chambers Combined Dictionary Thesaurus", bunches are "long hair divided into two pieces and tied separately at each side or the back of the head". Which is why I'm confused that some people say hair weave IS a type of hairstyle and so is skinhead, for some reasons! So which is it?
By the way, about the "jobsworth" thingy, I'll get it by Friday, 26th April.
Hairweave is something you do to your hair, so I'd call it a hairstyle. Skinhead is more a description of the person than the hair style, I'd call a person a skinhead, the style is a shaved head. If I were describing the hairstyle I might be going to get I could say I'm going to get a hairweave, then dreadlocks, put them in bunches and when I'm tired of it shave my head and be a skinhead.
Well, I'd like to take credit but I haven't been around to help this time, but you're great for coming up with all these great wordy (wordie? worthy?) challenges for us all! Glad you're here JessCC.
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reason that Faldage stated above). What else can gaffe mean besides "socially awkward or tactless act" (courtesy of Webster)?
