different between white vs towhead
white
English
Alternative forms
- whight, whyte, whyght (obsolete)
- White (race-related)
Etymology
From Middle English whit, hwit, from Old English hw?t, from Proto-West Germanic *hw?t, from Proto-Germanic *hw?taz (whence also West Frisian wyt, Dutch wit, German weiß, Norwegian Bokmål hvit, Norwegian Nynorsk kvit), from Proto-Indo-European *?weydós, a byform of *?weytós (“bright; shine”). Compare Lithuanian švi?sti (“to gleam”), šviesa (“light”), Old Church Slavonic ????? (sv?t?, “light”), ??????? (sv?t?l?, “clear, bright”), Persian ????? (sefid), Avestan ????????????????????????? (spa?ta, “white”), Sanskrit ????? (?vetá, “white, bright”).
Pronunciation
- enPR: w?t, IPA(key): /wa?t/
- (without the wine–whine merger) enPR: hw?t, IPA(key): /?a?t/
- Rhymes: -a?t
- Homophones: wight, Wight, wite (accents with the wine-whine merger)
Adjective
white (comparative whiter or more white, superlative whitest or most white)
- Bright and colourless; reflecting equal quantities of all frequencies of visible light.
- c. 1878, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Holidays"
- white as the whitest lily on a stream.
- 1381, quoted in Hans Kurath & Sherman M. Kuhn, eds., Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-01044-8, page 1242 (1961):
- dorr??, d?r? adj. & n. […] cook. glazed with a yellow substance; pome(s ~, sopes ~. […] 1381 Pegge Cook. Recipes page 114: For to make Soupys dorry. Nym onyons […] Nym wyn […] toste wyte bred and do yt in dischis, and god Almande mylk.
- Antonyms: black, nonwhite, unwhite
- c. 1878, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Holidays"
- (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to Caucasians, people of European descent with light-coloured skin.
- (chiefly historical) Designated for use by Caucasians.
- Relatively light or pale in colour.
- Pale or pallid, as from fear, illness, etc.
- (of a person or skin) Lacking coloration (tan) from ultraviolet light; not tanned.
- Synonyms: fair, pale
- Antonym: tanned
- (of coffee or tea) Containing cream, milk, or creamer.
- Antonym: black
- (board games, chess) The standard denomination of the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the white set, no matter what the actual colour.
- Pertaining to an ecclesiastical order whose adherents dress in white habits; Cistercian.
- Honourable, fair; decent.
- White as thy fame, and as thy honour clear.
- 1916, Julia Frankau, Twilight
- He's a fine fellow, this Gabriel Stanton, a white man all through
- 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, 2010, p.12:
- ‘We've only met twice and you've been more than white to me both times.’
- Grey, as from old age; having silvery hair; hoary.
- (archaic) Characterized by freedom from that which disturbs, and the like; fortunate; happy; favourable.
- (obsolete) Regarded with especial favour; favourite; darling.
- Come forth, my white spouse.
- c. 1626, John Ford, Tis Pity She's a Whore
- I am his white boy, and will not be gulled.
- (politics) Pertaining to constitutional or anti-revolutionary political parties or movements.
- 1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, 2010, p.163:
- Aimée de Coigny had always adopted with enthusiasm the political views of her ruling lover and she had thus already held nearly every shade of opinion from red republicanism to white reaction.
- 1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, 2010, p.163:
- (of tea) Made from immature leaves and shoots.
- (typography) Not containing characters; see white space.
- (typography) Said of a symbol or character outline, not solid, not filled with color. Compare black (“said of a character or symbol filled with color”).
- Compare two Unicode symbols: ? = "WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX"; ? = "BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX"
- Characterised by the presence of snow.
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
- Bislama: waet
- Tok Pisin: wait
- ? Japanese: ???? (howaito)
- white fella
- ? Nyunga: wadjela
- white gin
- ? Gamilaraay: waatyin
- ? Ngiyambaa: wadjiin
- ? Wiradhuri: waajin
Translations
See white/translations § Adjective.
Noun
white (countable and uncountable, plural whites)
- The color/colour of snow or milk; the colour of light containing equal amounts of all visible wavelengths.
- A person of European descent with light-coloured skin.
- Any butterfly of the family Pieridae.
- (countable and uncountable) White wine.
- (countable) Any object or substance that is of the color white.
- The albumen of bird eggs (egg white).
- (anatomy) The sclera, white of the eye.
- (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The cue ball in cue games.
- (slang, US) Cocaine
- The snow- or ice-covered "green" in snow golf.
- A white pigment.
- Venice white
- (archery) The central part of the butt, which was formerly painted white; the centre of a mark at which a missile is shot.
- The enclosed part of a letter of the alphabet, especially when handwritten.
- 1594, Hugh Plat, The Jewell House of Art and Nature, London, Chapter 38, p. 42,[3]
- Also it giueth a great grace to your writing, if the whites of certeine letters bee made of one equall bignesse with the o. supposing the same were all round, as the white of the b. of the a. p. y. v. w. x. q. d. g. and s.
- 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 18,[4]
- […] the a. b. d. g. o. p. q. &c. […] must be made with equal whites.
- 1931, Margery Allingham, Police at the Funeral, Penguin, 1939, Chapter 14, p. 157,[5]
- She copied the whole alphabet like that, as though only the inside whites of the letters registered on her mind.
- 1594, Hugh Plat, The Jewell House of Art and Nature, London, Chapter 38, p. 42,[3]
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
white (third-person singular simple present whites, present participle whiting, simple past and past participle whited)
- (transitive) To make white; to whiten; to bleach.
- whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of […] uncleanness
- so as no fuller on earth can white them
Derived terms
- white out
See also
- leucite
- leukoma
- leukosis
- Sauvignon blanc
- Svetambara
- terra alba
Further reading
- white on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Race on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- white on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
Anagrams
- withe
Middle English
Adjective
white
- inflection of whit:
- weak singular
- strong/weak plural
- Alternative form of whit
white From the web:
- what white wine is good for cooking
- what white wine is dry
- what whitens teeth
- what white wine is sweet
- what whitening strips are the best
- what white blood cells do
- what white heart means
- what white roses mean
towhead
English
Etymology
tow +? -head.
Noun
towhead (plural towheads)
- A blond person whose very pale, almost white hair resembles tow; the hair of such a person.
- 1959, Robert Penn Warren, The Cave, 2006, The University Press of Kentucky, page 54,
- Then he noticed that the scar ran back into her hair, and Lower Appalachian towhead is the nearest thing in nature you will get to platinum blond, barring albinos.
- 2010, Joseph A. West, Richard Compton (byline), Death of a Hangman, New American Library (Signet), page 103,
- “Hell, I never did cotton to an uppity whore anyhow," the towhead said.
- 2012, Ann M. Paulson, Stepping Stones for the Heart, Hay House (Balboa Press), page 88,
- The courtyard was lit with bright sunlight and Asenath and the two towheads were there amusing themselves.
- 1959, Robert Penn Warren, The Cave, 2006, The University Press of Kentucky, page 54,
- An alluvial deposit in a river, such as a sandbar, or a small island formed from silt, often permanent enough to have vegetation.
- 1884, Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 2001, iUniverse.com (New Millennium Library), page 73,
- Well, the second night a fog begun to come on, and we made for a towhead to tie to, for it wouldn't do to try to run in a fog; but when I paddled ahead in the canoe, with the line to make fast, there warn't anything but little saplings to tie to.
- 1884, Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 2001, iUniverse.com (New Millennium Library), page 73,
Derived terms
- towheaded
Translations
See also
- Appendix:Colors
towhead From the web:
- what's a towhead in huckleberry finn
- what does towhead mean in geography
- what does towhead hair mean
- what happened towhead white
- what does towhead represent
- what's a towhead sandbar
- what does towhead mean in spanish
- what is towhead in geography
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