Synonym for curly-haired?

[danzibr]

I remember, many moons ago, hopping on dictionary.com and seeing an unfamiliar word of the day. If memory serves me right, it began with an a and was at least a couple syllables. And it meant curly-haired. I get the feeling there was a b or g early on, too.

I've been googling and googling, and just can't find this word. Anyone with a bigger vocabulary (or better google-fu) have an idea?

[Zrak]

The closest I can think of is "aureole," which does not denote curly hair, per say, but rather refers to a halo or the radiant illumination around the head of a saint; its use to describe hair, curly or otherwise, would be purely metaphorical.

[Ravens_cry]

Angora? That's not really curly though.

[Coidzor]

Well, Kinky-haired is another way of describing it, but it could also refer to curly hair in a specific range of curl tightness. :smallconfused:

[danzibr]

Hmm, neither of those...

Darn esoteric words. Time to browse the dictionary :/

[Coidzor]

Hmm, neither of those...

Darn esoteric words. Time to browse the dictionary :/

The only other thing that comes to mind is ringlets, sadly. :/

[tomandtish]

There's the French word arrondi (http://thesaurus.com/browse/curly). It was listed as related to curly (not a direct synonym), and seems to mean curved or round depending on context?

[Zrak]

The adjective comes from past participle of arrondir, which means "to round" as in "make round," so it would be closer to "rounded" than "round." In French, it's what one would use to describe a number which has been rounded to the nearest hundredth or a square with rounded corners, for instance. I've never really encountered it used with reference to hair, but I'd imagine it would be used more to indicate curled hair (as by curler or a perm) than curly hair. In English, I've only ever seen the word used in reference to ballet positions.

[Benthesquid]

Auricomous means golden haired and an acersecomic is one whose hair has never been cut. An autotonsorialist cuts their own hair. But I couldn't find anything for curly, alas.

[tomandtish]

The adjective comes from past participle of arrondir, which means "to round" as in "make round," so it would be closer to "rounded" than "round." In French, it's what one would use to describe a number which has been rounded to the nearest hundredth or a square with rounded corners, for instance. I've never really encountered it used with reference to hair, but I'd imagine it would be used more to indicate curled hair (as by curler or a perm) than curly hair. In English, I've only ever seen the word used in reference to ballet positions.

Yeah, most of the examples I found seemed to be referring to face shape, not hair.

Interestingly enough, if you go to the actual arrondi (http://thesaurus.com/browse/arrondi) page (the page above was for curly), curly is listed as a synonym. So curly is (allegedly) a synonym of arrondi, but arrondi is not a synonym of curly? Hmmm....

[Coidzor]

Arabesque curls, maybe?

[danzibr]

No wonder the playground couldn't find it: I gave bad information.

It started with a c, not an a, and it's a synonym for wavy-haired, not curly-haired. Cymotrichous.

[tomandtish]

That would make it more challenging.... :smallbiggrin:

No worries though.

[danzibr]

That would make it more challenging.... :smallbiggrin:

No worries though.
I have to admit, I would have been absolutely astounded has someone said, "Are you sure you aren't thinking cymotrichous?" :P

[Lauren]

Depending on the context, you could always make a specific comparison.

At the moment, my hair is two inches of bad 80s perm, for example. (Seriously, it looks dreadful.)