Monday, April 07, 2008

?-heads

I read Richard Price's Clockers (1992) on a long car trip last weekend, and the recurrent use of the word "pipehead" to refer to addicts set me to wondering: just how many different kinds of "-head" are there?

Below is a quick list I came up with while running today; degrees of offensiveness vary.
Knucklehead
Blockhead
Dickhead
Lunkhead
Squarehead
Pothead
Smackhead
Crackhead
Chucklehead
Chowderhead
Cheesehead
No way that's even close to all of them. Additions?
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11 comments:

  1. Jenny Davidson11:44 PM

    Bands: Lemonheads, Portishead. Gearhead is one I hear a lot round the triathlon situation!

    ReplyDelete
  2. MomVee6:20 AM

    Butthead. Deadhead. Parrothead (devotee of Jimmy Buffett).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous8:02 AM

    Hi Levi!!! thank you very much for your help..... i've appreciated it very much!! i think I'll continue reading your blog, it's very interesting. I'm glad to know that in the world are people like you, who give importance to art and literature an so on... also in their blog. bye and thanks again!
    aly

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sarah9:59 AM

    Hothead
    Pinhead
    Hooplehead
    Jarhead

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ed Park12:39 PM

    This sad piece has "game head":

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/nyregion/08student.html?scp=1&sq=Columbia&st=nyt

    Also: "Rivethead"

    http://www.amazon.com/Rivethead-Tales-Assembly-Ben-Hamper/dp/0446394009

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lisa3:56 PM

    Metalhead
    Shithead
    Hophead

    (I think I need to keep better company...)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Levi Stahl4:14 PM

    Oh, you guys are good! Thanks for the help.

    I can't believe I forgot Parrothead, given that my wonderful sister-in-law suffers from that affliction. And my forgetting of Hooplehead just shows that it's long past time to rewatch Deadwood.

    ReplyDelete
  8. D Cairns4:44 PM

    In Scotland we have DUNDERHEID, which means the same as most of them. I don't quite know the derivation though. Also BAW-HEID, which translates from the Scots tongue as "ball-head", which means the same as most of them.

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  9. Levi Stahl5:38 PM

    I forgot two from the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man is frequently referred to as Webhead, while Daredevil carries the name Hornhead.

    ReplyDelete
  10. radian10:15 AM

    rivethead

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  11. Levi Stahl9:32 PM

    Opening an article on Martin Amis's seemingly terrible new book of essays on life post-9/11 in the New York Times the other day, Michiko Kakutani described the essays as "chuckleheaded."

    I think she's got the wrong word, and I'm surprised her editor didn't change it. Merriam-Websters defines the word as "blockheaded", or stupid. Amis may be ill-informed, or even ignorant to the point of being racist, but stupid?

    Maybe "woolly-headed" would have been better?

    ReplyDelete

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