Date:  Sun, 3 Dec 1995 18:30:41 -0500

From:  "Dennis R. Preston" <preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PILOT.MSU.EDU>

Subject: Re: -head



I saw the Green Bay Packers play today and heard their fans, them, and

Wisconsonites (Wisconsonians?) in general referred to as 'cheeseheads.' One

of the fans in the stands had a hat shaped like a big wedge of cheese

(apparently a Swiss). I hadn't thought about Alice in Dairyland for a long

time. I'm sure all you DAREers are used to all this.

Dennis

preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu



>A colleague of mine wanted to make sure I added "chowderhead" to the "-head"

>list. That then reminded me of "knucklehead,"(my frame of reference there

>always was the "Archie" comic strip, I think) "fathead," "farthead," and

>"dunderhead." The last one, I believe, grew out of "thunderhead," a

>non-slang term for the clouds that roll in immediately ahead of a

>thunderstorm, but somehow became synonymous with "chowderhead" et al.

>  Of course, now we have "Thunderheads"--a self-generated label for fans

>of the "Thursday Night Thunder" auto races on ESPN.

>  It also struck me that "bighead" probably qualifies, as in "...gave him

>the bighead" (and I think I've also heard "swellhead" for one with an

>overblown confidence in oneself).

>  Also, as I recall, the American media dubbed the Beatles "mopheads" when

>they first arrived here in '64 (although I imagine the term predates that).

>  Then there are "skinheads," the Nazi-type thugs of the '80s & '90s, but

>I seem to remember the term being used for any bald guy prior to that (I

>guess I qualify as a "semi-skinhead" at present or "soon-to-be-skinhead").

>  And let us not forget "maidenhead," that virtually extinct specie in the

>sexually liberated '90s, or our old childhood friend "Mr. Potatohead." And

>his close relatives of a later period, the "Coneheads."

>  And, finally, I seem to remember back in the '50s, when I was in high

>school, the use of "peanuthead" for a person whose head seemed too small for

>his/her body. (Of course, that could send us off into a sublist of "-brain"

>words--i.e., "birdbrain," "peabrain," etc., but I don't know if the original

>poster wants to go that far?)

>

>Jerry Miller