I came across this sentence in a work of fiction yesterday: "The brunette shakes his head."

It did eventually become clear as I read further that the writer was indeed using brunette to refer to a man. To me, a brunette is by definition a brown-haired woman. I thought we had discussed this before but I can't find the thread. So, what do you all think? Does a brunette have to be female? xrefer (http://www.xrefer.com/entry.jsp?xrefid=591752&secid=.-), by the way, says that US'ns also use brunet as a sex-neutralish term.

Bingley

Bingley