Pigtail redux

[Quinn C]

Gilmore Girls, Season 7 Episode 3:

| Sookie: I've never seen your
| hair up like that.
|
| Lorelai: I'm just trying out a new look,
| seeing if I like it, serving no master but myself.
|
| Sookie: Are you gonna try pigtails, too?
| Because that's kind of my thing.

Sookie was wearing her hair like this, as she often does:

<http://cdn2.teen.com/wp-content/gallery/best-funniest-relevant-gilmore-girls-quotes/Sookie-St-James-Gilmore-Girls-Smiling.png>

That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
"bunches". I don't remember her with

The comment was a bit strange, as Lorelai had the same style on
and off a few seasons earlier.

--
A chrysanthemum by any other name would be easier to spell.
Peter Moylan in alt.usage.english

[Quinn C]

* Quinn C:

> That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
> "bunches". I don't remember her with

... braids.

--
It gets hot in Raleigh, but Texas! I don't know why anybody
lives here, honestly.
-- Robert C. Wilson, Vortex (novel), p.220

[Snidely]

Quinn C wrote on 3/5/2017 :
> Gilmore Girls, Season 7 Episode 3:
>
>> Sookie: I've never seen your
>> hair up like that.
>>
>> Lorelai: I'm just trying out a new look,
>> seeing if I like it, serving no master but myself.
>>
>> Sookie: Are you gonna try pigtails, too?
>> Because that's kind of my thing.
>
> Sookie was wearing her hair like this, as she often does:
>
> <http://cdn2.teen.com/wp-content/gallery/best-funniest-relevant-gilmore-girls-quotes/Sookie-St-James-Gilmore-Girls-Smiling.png>
>
> That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
> "bunches". I don't remember her with
>
> The comment was a bit strange, as Lorelai had the same style on
> and off a few seasons earlier.

Double ponytails.

/dps

--
"I am not given to exaggeration, and when I say a thing I mean it"
_Roughing It_, Mark Twain

[Harrison Hill]

On Monday, 6 March 2017 04:53:11 UTC, Quinn C wrote:
> * Quinn C:
>
> > That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
> > "bunches". I don't remember her with
>
> ... braids.

...plaits.

Braid(s) and plait(s) are unusual in being exact synonyms, both
in verb form (and noun forms).

[Peter Moylan]

If true, this is a new discovery. Past AUE discussions have concluded
that furze and gorse are the only exact synonyms in English.

I agree that braid and plait seem to be synonymous in reference to hair.
I'd have to think a bit more about other uses.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

[Harrison Hill]

I very rarely hear the verbs "to furze" and "to gorse" :)

[spuorg...@gowanhill.com]

On Monday, 6 March 2017 11:35:23 UTC, Peter Moylan wrote:

> If true, this is a new discovery. Past AUE discussions have concluded
> that furze and gorse are the only exact synonyms in English.

If you include Scottish you could add whin. But do plant common names count as synonyms?

Owain

[spuorg...@gowanhill.com]

On Monday, 6 March 2017 14:13:06 UTC, Harrison Hill wrote:
> I very rarely hear the verbs "to furze" and "to gorse" :)

You weren't at public school[1] then? ;-)

Owain

[1] BrE meaning.

[Quinn C]

* Harrison Hill:

And do you guys also have "French plaiting", or is there another
term for that?

--
A computer will do what you tell it to do, but that may be much
different from what you had in mind. - Joseph Weizenbaum

[charles]

In article <tj2s45lgkqjc$.d...@mid.crommatograph.info>,

Quinn C <lispa...@crommatograph.info> wrote:
> * Harrison Hill:

> > On Monday, 6 March 2017 04:53:11 UTC, Quinn C wrote:
> >> * Quinn C:
> >>
> >>> That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
> >>> "bunches". I don't remember her with
> >>
> >> ... braids.
> >
> > ...plaits.
> >
> > Braid(s) and plait(s) are unusual in being exact synonyms, both
> > in verb form (and noun forms).

> And do you guys also have "French plaiting", or is there another
> term for that?

I think so; it's one single plait, I believe

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

[Cheryl]

I'd call the result a French braid, and a single plait or single braid
is, well, a single braid without the more complicated braiding close to
the head that is characteristic of a French braid. A French braid starts
part way up the head; a single plait (or braid) starts at the nape of
the neck.

--
Cheryl

[Robert Bannister]

For me, "braiding" is plaiting a ribbon through hair or a horse's mane.

--
Robert B. born England a long time ago;
Western Australia since 1972

[Robert Bannister]

If you furze it down to quickly, you'll gorse it all up again.

[Robert Bannister]

Curses! "too"

[Robert Bannister]

On 7/3/17 1:46 am, Quinn C wrote:
> * Harrison Hill:
>
>> On Monday, 6 March 2017 04:53:11 UTC, Quinn C wrote:
>>> * Quinn C:
>>>
>>>> That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
>>>> "bunches". I don't remember her with
>>>
>>> ... braids.
>>
>> ...plaits.
>>
>> Braid(s) and plait(s) are unusual in being exact synonyms, both
>> in verb form (and noun forms).
>
> And do you guys also have "French plaiting", or is there another
> term for that?
>

I know what a French plait is. Is that French braid in AmE?

[Robert Bannister]

On 6/3/17 4:34 pm, Snidely wrote:
> Quinn C wrote on 3/5/2017 :
>> Gilmore Girls, Season 7 Episode 3:
>>
>>> Sookie: I've never seen your
>>> hair up like that.
>>>
>>> Lorelai: I'm just trying out a new look,
>>> seeing if I like it, serving no master but myself.
>>>
>>> Sookie: Are you gonna try pigtails, too?
>>> Because that's kind of my thing.
>>
>> Sookie was wearing her hair like this, as she often does:
>>
>> <http://cdn2.teen.com/wp-content/gallery/best-funniest-relevant-gilmore-girls-quotes/Sookie-St-James-Gilmore-Girls-Smiling.png>
>>
>>
>> That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
>> "bunches". I don't remember her with
>> The comment was a bit strange, as Lorelai had the same style on
>> and off a few seasons earlier.
>
> Double ponytails.

Ponytails are longer and/or thicker than bunches.

[Rich Ulrich]

On Tue, 7 Mar 2017 10:21:59 +0800, Robert Bannister
<rob...@clubtelco.com> wrote:

>On 7/3/17 1:46 am, Quinn C wrote:
>> * Harrison Hill:
>>
>>> On Monday, 6 March 2017 04:53:11 UTC, Quinn C wrote:
>>>> * Quinn C:
>>>>
>>>>> That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
>>>>> "bunches". I don't remember her with
>>>>
>>>> ... braids.
>>>
>>> ...plaits.
>>>
>>> Braid(s) and plait(s) are unusual in being exact synonyms, both
>>> in verb form (and noun forms).
>>
>> And do you guys also have "French plaiting", or is there another
>> term for that?
>>
>
>I know what a French plait is. Is that French braid in AmE?

Yes, French braid in both BrE and AmE.

Who had one in about 1980? That's when the ngrams seem
to take off. In both BrE and AmE, "braid" quickly outnumber
"plait" by a large amount for some years after that.

For whatever reason, in BrE (only), the two ngrams converge
in 2005 (up for plait, down for braid) and stay level for the
last three years of the chart.

--
Rich Ulrich

[Joy Beeson]

On Mon, 06 Mar 2017 18:12:46 +0000 (GMT), charles
<cha...@candehope.me.uk> wrote:

> > And do you guys also have "French plaiting", or is there another
> > term for that?
>
> I think so; it's one single plait, I believe

The mother of one of my classmates in elementary school french-braided
her pigtails. After I attended a slumber party at her house, her
mother french-braided mine too.

"Plait" was Hoosier dialect, and would probably have been considered
"bad English" if it had been in my vocabulary.

Actually, wiping out my native dialect was a good thing. Today I know
very few people who would have learned it if allowed, and I married a
man who would have spoken an entirely-different dialect.

--
Joy Beeson, U.S.A., mostly central Hoosier,
some Northern Indiana, Upstate New York, Florida, and Hawaii
joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

[Snidely]

Just this Monday, Robert Bannister explained that ...

YMMV.

/dps

--
There's nothing inherently wrong with Big Data. What matters, as it
does for Arnold Lund in California or Richard Rothman in Baltimore, are
the questions -- old and new, good and bad -- this newest tool lets us
ask. (R. Lerhman, CSMonitor.com)

[Quinn C]

* Snidely:

> Just this Monday, Robert Bannister explained that ...
>> On 6/3/17 4:34 pm, Snidely wrote:
>>> Quinn C wrote on 3/5/2017 :
>>>> Gilmore Girls, Season 7 Episode 3:
>>>>
>>>>> Sookie: I've never seen your
>>>>> hair up like that.
>>>>>
>>>>> Lorelai: I'm just trying out a new look,
>>>>> seeing if I like it, serving no master but myself.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sookie: Are you gonna try pigtails, too?
>>>>> Because that's kind of my thing.
>>>>
>>>> Sookie was wearing her hair like this, as she often does:
>>>>
>>>> <http://cdn2.teen.com/wp-content/gallery/best-funniest-relevant-gilmore-girls-quotes/Sookie-St-James-Gilmore-Girls-Smiling.png>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
>>>> "bunches". I don't remember her with
>>>> The comment was a bit strange, as Lorelai had the same style on
>>>> and off a few seasons earlier.
>>>
>>> Double ponytails.
>>
>> Ponytails are longer and/or thicker than bunches.
>
> YMMV.

That's some long tails!

--
WinErr 008: Erroneous error. Nothing is wrong.

[Quinn C]

* Robert Bannister:

And... have you looked at the picture? Which one is it?

In any case, my impression that "pigtails" is also used to refer
to these was confirmed by the show, the protagonists of which are
my generation. While some doubt has been cast, I still believe
that at least for younger people in North America, that's the
normal name for this hair style, and that's what they imagine when
you say "pigtails".

Just do an image search online. Pigtails come in pairs, can be
braided, but more often aren't. Conversely, search for
"ponytails", and, despite the plural, you'll see almost
exclusively one per head. I suspect that at least on this
continent, single pigtails and multiple ponytails, as well as the
idea that pigtails should be braided, are headed for extinction
with the older generation.

--
Pentiums melt in your PC, not in your hand.

[Tony Cooper]

Men who have pigtails, unless they are able-bodied seamen serving on a
sail-powered vessel, should be forced to walk the plank.

--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 2:17:57 PM UTC-5, Tony Cooper wrote:

> Men who have pigtails, unless they are able-bodied seamen serving on a
> sail-powered vessel, should be forced to walk the plank.

You want them to coil them up into a man-bun?

Maybe your superannuated community doesn't have any hipsters.

[Snidely]

Quinn C submitted this gripping article, maybe on Tuesday:

My consultant agrees that Sookie is wearing pigtails.

/dps "IWW"

--
"What do you think of my cart, Miss Morland? A neat one, is not it?
Well hung: curricle-hung in fact. Come sit by me and we'll test the
springs."
(Speculative fiction by H.Lacedaemonian.)

[Katy Jennison]

Given that the Sookie in question is American, I can't argue, but over
here on the other side of the pond they'd be bunches; pigtails would be
plaited. Thus the OED:

2. a. A plait or tail of hair. In early use: a single plait or queue
of hair hanging down from the back of the head, as in a particular style
of wig, or as worn by soldiers and sailors in the late 18th and early
19th centuries; a long plait of hair as formerly worn by the Chinese.
Now chiefly: each of two tails of (usually plaited) hair hanging from
either side of the head, as worn esp. by young girls.

--
Katy Jennison

[Lewis]

In message <mn.30227e130996c97d.127094@snitoo> Snidely <snide...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Quinn C wrote on 3/5/2017 :
>> Gilmore Girls, Season 7 Episode 3:
>>
>>> Sookie: I've never seen your
>>> hair up like that.
>>>
>>> Lorelai: I'm just trying out a new look,
>>> seeing if I like it, serving no master but myself.
>>>
>>> Sookie: Are you gonna try pigtails, too?
>>> Because that's kind of my thing.
>>
>> Sookie was wearing her hair like this, as she often does:
>>
>> <http://cdn2.teen.com/wp-content/gallery/best-funniest-relevant-gilmore-girls-quotes/Sookie-St-James-Gilmore-Girls-Smiling.png>
>>
>> That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
>> "bunches". I don't remember her with
>>
>> The comment was a bit strange, as Lorelai had the same style on
>> and off a few seasons earlier.

> Double ponytails.

You can't even see her hair, it's just behind/under a bandanna.

For me, a "pigtail" is gathered at the side of the head into a tight
binding and it stands away from the head. An airgap is possibly a
requirement. Braids are common, but not required.

There is another style of pigtail where they are tightly
gathered in one place and then left "poofy" that I associate most with
girls under 10yo or so. The poof may hide the fact that the gathered
portion stand away from the head.

A pony tail is at the back and is often loosely gathered or even
knotted.

However, I would hesitate to refer to ANY hairstyle on an adult woman as
pigtails.

pigtails:
<http://lionesseflatiron.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Lionesse-Hair-Styles-Little-Girls-Pigtail-e1436389614465.jpg>

poofy pigtials:
<http://www.wikihow.com/images/b/ba/Put-Your-Hair-Into-Gothic-(Harajuku)-Pigtails-Step-7.jpg>

<pony tails
<http://hairromance-3df0.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Hair-Romance-Hairstyle-tutorial-for-pigtails-without-a-part.jpg>
<http://www.ewigsna.com/skin/frontend/default/default/img/ponytail-step_3.jpg>

This braided hair is neither a pigtail nor a ponytail:
<https://www.google.com/search?q=pigtails+hair&tbm=isch&gws_rd=ssl#gws_rd=ssl&imgrc=bGZlBGwuKFJMHM:>


--
When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?

[Quinn C]

* Lewis:

> In message <mn.30227e130996c97d.127094@snitoo> Snidely <snide...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Quinn C wrote on 3/5/2017 :
>>> Gilmore Girls, Season 7 Episode 3:
>>>
>>>> Sookie: I've never seen your
>>>> hair up like that.
>>>>
>>>> Lorelai: I'm just trying out a new look,
>>>> seeing if I like it, serving no master but myself.
>>>>
>>>> Sookie: Are you gonna try pigtails, too?
>>>> Because that's kind of my thing.
>>>
>>> Sookie was wearing her hair like this, as she often does:
>>>
>>> <http://cdn2.teen.com/wp-content/gallery/best-funniest-relevant-gilmore-girls-quotes/Sookie-St-James-Gilmore-Girls-Smiling.png>
>>>
>>> That is, in the style some of you insist is not pigtails, but
>>> "bunches". I don't remember her with
>>>
>>> The comment was a bit strange, as Lorelai had the same style on
>>> and off a few seasons earlier.
>
>> Double ponytails.
>
> You can't even see her hair, it's just behind/under a bandanna.

Not the important part, which is gathered.

This is an interesting example to me because I soemtimes fo that
style. The hair is gathered on both sides in the lower back region
of the head and then forms natural arcs, because it isn't long
enough to hang straight down.

> However, I would hesitate to refer to ANY hairstyle on an adult woman as
> pigtails.

How about adult men? <g>

> pigtails:
> <http://lionesseflatiron.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Lionesse-Hair-Styles-Little-Girls-Pigtail-e1436389614465.jpg>
>
> poofy pigtials:
> <http://www.wikihow.com/images/b/ba/Put-Your-Hair-Into-Gothic-(Harajuku)-Pigtails-Step-7.jpg>
>
> <pony tails
> <http://hairromance-3df0.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Hair-Romance-Hairstyle-tutorial-for-pigtails-without-a-part.jpg>
> <http://www.ewigsna.com/skin/frontend/default/default/img/ponytail-step_3.jpg>

So the difference is that they're just hanging.

Part of why the question of what to call this type of hair has
become bigger recently is that variations of it are common and
iconic in Japanese anime characters. This has even brought forth
the (I think) new expression "twintails".

--
Skyler: Uncle Cosmo ... why do they call this a word processor?
Cosmo: It's simple, Skyler ... you've seen what food processors
do to food, right?
Cartoon by Jeff MacNelley

[Cheryl]

I'd call them all ponytails. For me, a "pigtail" has to be braided (or
plaited). But it's clear that many people have different words for
different styles. It's not surprising, really.

--
Cheryl

[Peter T. Daniels]

Plait _or_ tail, plait _or_ queue, so it seems as though the braiding isn't
an essential part of the definition.

[Sam Plusnet]

On 07/03/2017 19:17, Tony Cooper wrote:

> Men who have pigtails, unless they are able-bodied seamen serving on a
> sail-powered vessel, should be forced to walk the plank.

If they're on dry land, the plank-walking might prove ineffectual.


--
Sam Plusnet

[Katy Jennison]

I think a queue or tail is/was usually either braided/plaited or else
wrapped or twisted in some way, rather than being left loose like a
pony-tail or like (BrE) bunches.

But YMMV, and clearly does. All I'm saying is that in ordinary everyday
BrE, as opposed apparently to AmE, the hairstyle shown in the link
wouldn't be described as pigtails.

--
Katy Jennison

[Quinn C]

* Cheryl:

> On 2017-03-08 10:06 AM, Quinn C wrote:
>> * Lewis:

>> [...]

>>> pigtails:
>>> <http://lionesseflatiron.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Lionesse-Hair-Styles-Little-Girls-Pigtail-e1436389614465.jpg>
>>>
>>> poofy pigtials:
>>> <http://www.wikihow.com/images/b/ba/Put-Your-Hair-Into-Gothic-(Harajuku)-Pigtails-Step-7.jpg>
>>>
>>> <pony tails
>>> <http://hairromance-3df0.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Hair-Romance-Hairstyle-tutorial-for-pigtails-without-a-part.jpg>
>>> <http://www.ewigsna.com/skin/frontend/default/default/img/ponytail-step_3.jpg>
>>
>> So the difference is that they're just hanging.
>>
>> Part of why the question of what to call this type of hair has
>> become bigger recently is that variations of it are common and
>> iconic in Japanese anime characters. This has even brought forth
>> the (I think) new expression "twintails".
>>
> I'd call them all ponytails. For me, a "pigtail" has to be braided (or
> plaited). But it's clear that many people have different words for
> different styles. It's not surprising, really.

Between different countries, or the ends of a big country, yes.
But this case seems so confused that in order to convey an image,
you'll have to avoid all of the existing terms.

--
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to use
the 'Net and he won't bother you for weeks.

[Will Parsons]

I quite agree. As far as I'm concerned, if the hair isn't braided or
plaited, it's defininitely *not* pigtails. (Afer all, have you ever
seen a pig with a tail like a horse's?)

That said, on a recent visit to my daughter (in Wisconsin, USA), my
daughter was tying up my granddaughter's hair in bunches, and referred
to them as "pigtails". I expressed my opinion that those were *not*
pigtails, but I doubt that I convinced her.

--
Will

[Will Parsons]

I agree with the "pigtails", and I even find it difficult calling two
bunches of hair "ponytails" (until I see a horse with two tails). But
I suppose "twin polytails" is better than "pigtails".

--
Will

[Robert Bannister]

I see we speak a different dialect.
1. I don't have double ponytails in my dialect, so despite their size,
the picture is of bunches.
2. pigtails are always plaited in my English. I agree that you rarely
see plaited pigtails these days though they were common for schoolgirls
in my day. French plaits I mainly see with women in their 20s or in
their 80s.
3. the other cross-pond hair word we haven't mentioned, presumably
because by now we all know it, is "fringe/bangs".

[Peter T. Daniels]

Fringe is what mostly-bald men have, bangs hand down over the forehead.

[Quinn C]

* Will Parsons:

As has been pointed out to me, two-tailed pigs are no more common.

> But I suppose "twin polytails" is better than "pigtails".

Really "polytails"?

Here a link to a site that I used extensively throughout a certain
phase in my son's life:
<http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ninetales_(Pok%C3%A9mon)>

--
The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose
from; furthermore, if you do not like any of them, you can just
wait for next year's model.
Andrew Tanenbaum, _Computer Networks_ (1981), p. 168.

[Lewis]

Hmm. I don't know. I've never seen anything like pigtails on a man.
Ponytails, yes. Braids, yes.

>> pigtails:
>> <http://lionesseflatiron.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Lionesse-Hair-Styles-Little-Girls-Pigtail-e1436389614465.jpg>
>>
>> poofy pigtials:
>> <http://www.wikihow.com/images/b/ba/Put-Your-Hair-Into-Gothic-(Harajuku)-Pigtails-Step-7.jpg>
>>
>> <pony tails
>> <http://hairromance-3df0.kxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Hair-Romance-Hairstyle-tutorial-for-pigtails-without-a-part.jpg>
>> <http://www.ewigsna.com/skin/frontend/default/default/img/ponytail-step_3.jpg>

> So the difference is that they're just hanging.

Pigtails don't hang, they stand out from the head.

> Part of why the question of what to call this type of hair has
> become bigger recently is that variations of it are common and
> iconic in Japanese anime characters. This has even brought forth
> the (I think) new expression "twintails".

pigtails:
<http://media.animevice.com/uploads/0/74/41913-hqkokoa.png>
<http://images6.fanpop.com/image/answers/3099000/3099670_1355201598495.47res_315_339.jpg>
<http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/medakabox/images/8/80/Judo_Club_Member_With_Pigtails.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130811204749>

ponytail:
<https://t0.rbxcdn.com/d059cf2f7a30a71769b81bb406fda4e7>

--
OS X 10.5 is going to have spots?

[Lewis]

When I was a kid, all pigtails were tightly braided, but hair styles
changed.


--
'You make us want what we can't have and what you give us is worth
nothing and what you take is everything and all there is left for us is
the cold hillside, and emptiness, and the laughter of the elves.'

[Will Parsons]

Hmmm... You've got me there. I guess I'll have to accept "ponytails",
although it does strike me as slightly odd.

>> But I suppose "twin polytails" is better than "pigtails".
>
> Really "polytails"?

Whoops - I've got to get that spellchecker working.

> Here a link to a site that I used extensively throughout a certain
> phase in my son's life:
><http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ninetales_(Pok%C3%A9mon)>

--

Will

[Quinn C]

* Lewis:

This could be the explanation for the diverging views. When paired
bunched hair used to be almost always braided, some people may
have come to the conclusion that being braided is the central part
of what defines the hairstyle, while others focussed on the
pairedness.

It's not watertight, though, because there was also talk of single
(central) pigtails.

--
*Hardware* /n./ The parts of a computer that can be kicked

[Will Parsons]

On Thursday, 9 Mar 2017 12:37 PM -0500, Quinn C wrote:
> * Lewis:
>
>> In message <eiafr3...@mid.individual.net> Cheryl <cper...@med.mun.ca> wrote:
>>>
>>> I'd call them all ponytails. For me, a "pigtail" has to be braided (or
>>> plaited). But it's clear that many people have different words for
>>> different styles. It's not surprising, really.
>>
>> When I was a kid, all pigtails were tightly braided, but hair styles
>> changed.

Sure hair styles change, but if the hair style is no longer braided,
then it's no longer a pigtail.

> This could be the explanation for the diverging views. When paired
> bunched hair used to be almost always braided, some people may
> have come to the conclusion that being braided is the central part
> of what defines the hairstyle, while others focussed on the
> pairedness.

Consider where the term comes from - an imagined similarity to a pig's
tail, which is quite unlike a pony's tail. Once the group of hairs
that comprise a pigtail are no longer closely bound together, it
ceases to even remotely resemble a pig's tail.

> It's not watertight, though, because there was also talk of single
> (central) pigtails.

Sure - the Chinese 'queue' was sometimes also referred to as a
'pigtail'.

--
Will

[Peter Moylan]

On 2017-Mar-10 04:29, Will Parsons wrote:
> Quinn C wrote:
>> * Will Parsons:

>>> I agree with the "pigtails", and I even find it difficult calling two
>>> bunches of hair "ponytails" (until I see a horse with two tails).
>>
>> As has been pointed out to me, two-tailed pigs are no more common.
>
> Hmmm... You've got me there. I guess I'll have to accept "ponytails",
> although it does strike me as slightly odd.
>
>>> But I suppose "twin polytails" is better than "pigtails".
>>
>> Really "polytails"?
>
> Whoops - I've got to get that spellchecker working.

I thought it was deliberate. We need a term for multiple pigtails or
ponytails, and "polytails" sounds like a useful coining.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

[Will Parsons]

Thinking about it, yes it does. I'll happily take credit!

--
Will

[Lewis]

Pigtails are nearly always in pairs, as opposed to pig tails.



--
'In the Fyres of Struggle let us bake New Men, who Will Notte heed the
old Lies.'

[Janet]

In article <slrnoc5821....@snow.local>,
g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies says...

Except when they are box braids or cornrows or dreadlocks.

Janet

[Tony Cooper]

Dunno what "box braids" are, but I can't accept cornrows or dreadlocks
as pigtails. Braided strands of hair, yes, but just being braided
doesn't make them pigtails.

While we may argue over the specific definition of "pigtails", I don't
see that there's an argument over the general definition: one or two
braided lengths of hair.

[RH Draney]

If my manga-loving friends are to be believed, fox tails come in sets of
seven....r

[Jerry Friedman]

This is my idea of pigtails.

http://cf.ltkcdn.net/hair/images/std/1431-285x156-Pigtail1.jpg

Pigs' tails are thin, not puffy. (They also curl, though.)

> ponytail:
> <https://t0.rbxcdn.com/d059cf2f7a30a71769b81bb406fda4e7>

I agree with that.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Quinn C]

* Jerry Friedman:

As for the curling aspect, it's interesting. For some people,
braiding/plaiting is what provides the curled aspect that explains
the name "pigtail". But for others, the natural curve that short
bunches form is the "curl":

| The tails of pigs are curly (at least they are in children's
| stories). The loose hair tends to make a spiral while a braid
| would remain very straight.

<https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/bunches-vs-pigtails-ponytails-plaits.1881822/>

I called it "arc", I wouldn't say "spiral".

For yet other people, you could have one or two "braided
ponytails", one or multiple.

>> ponytail:
>> <https://t0.rbxcdn.com/d059cf2f7a30a71769b81bb406fda4e7>
>
> I agree with that.

My original question, however, was not so much what pigtails are,
but what to call this hairdo:

<http://www.lil-miss.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/pigtails2.jpg>

or, with a lower placement more acceptable for adults,

<http://slodive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/short-hairstyles-for-oval-faces/excited-pigtails.jpg>

There seems to be no unmistakable name for it. "Bunches" mostly
does it for BrE, but for NAmE, I haven't found anything better
than "pigtails", which clashes with older and OtherE definitions
of the word. They're a bit short to be universally accepted as
"ponytails", if a person even accepts you can have two of those.

--
Q: What do computer engineers use for birth control?
A: Their personalities.

[Tony Cooper]

On Fri, 10 Mar 2017 17:08:43 -0500, Quinn C
<lispa...@crommatograph.info> wrote:

>* Jerry Friedman:
>
>> On Thursday, March 9, 2017 at 2:37:32 AM UTC-7, Lewis wrote:
>>>
>>> pigtails:
>>> <http://media.animevice.com/uploads/0/74/41913-hqkokoa.png>
>>> <http://images6.fanpop.com/image/answers/3099000/3099670_1355201598495.47res_315_339.jpg>
>>> <http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/medakabox/images/8/80/Judo_Club_Member_With_Pigtails.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130811204749>
>>
>> This is my idea of pigtails.
>>
>> http://cf.ltkcdn.net/hair/images/std/1431-285x156-Pigtail1.jpg
>>
>> Pigs' tails are thin, not puffy. (They also curl, though.)

I wouldn't say this pig's tail is curly, but it does have a curve to
it.

https://photos.smugmug.com/AUE-Photos/i-FnxHxVs/0/X3/2008-11-04-3-X3.jpg

[Lewis]

I don't know what a box braid is, but I wouldn't call cornrows or
dreadlocks pigtails.



--
Lead me not into temptation, I can find the way.