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Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

entradas

English translation:

widow\'s peak

Added to glossary by Angel Biojo
Feb 10, 2013 04:20
11 yrs ago
10 viewers *
Spanish term

entradas

Spanish to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters General
El tenía unos 28 años de edad, su estatura no era sobresaliente,
de cabello negro liso y con dos entradas en la frente,
algo calvo y delgado, y se identificaba con su apellido.
Proposed translations (English)
4 +5 widow's peak
4 +3 receding hairline
4 +2 hair receding from each side
References
http://www.belgraviacentre.com/blog/widows-peak-warning-of-hair-loss-in-men/
Widower's peak / receding hairline

Discussion

Isamar Feb 11, 2013:
Except that a widow's peak.... doesn't necessarily mean (as Carol) mentions, that a person is balding while "entradas" means that the hairline has receded (perhaps excessively) at the temples
Ray Ables Feb 10, 2013:
a form of head-dress that was even then quite out of fashion; a book of 1712 said that it was part of the costume of “our grandmothers”. This suggests people may indeed have imagined a link between hair shape and headwear.

Though it’s explicitly female, these days men are at least as often described as having widow’s peaks (widower’s peak is known but is rare), as the receding hairline of a balding man often leaves a central protruding peak. The term frequently turns up in books about genetics, because the hair shape is a classic example of a dominant inherited trait.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-wid3.htm
Ray Ables Feb 10, 2013:
together, which she said was a widow’s lock, and said, if it were cutt off she should die.

A book with the title Current Superstitions, published in 1896, recorded that in Labrador it was believed that if a girl’s lock were cut before marriage, she would be a widow.

Many writers have traced the widow’s peak superstition to old conventions about the clothing appropriate to a mourning widow, the traditional widow’s weeds. (Weed was a millennium ago a standard word for an item of clothing; only in the sixteenth century did it become restricted to mourning clothes, and in particular to those of a widow.) It is said that part of the widow’s costume at the time was a hood (perhaps a version of the bycoket, worn by both men and women) with a pointed crest at the front that resembled the widow’s peak. We have to presume that, through a kind of sympathetic magic, a woman who had that shape at the front of her hair was believed to be destined to wear widow’s weeds.

The term widow’s lock is recorded from about 1540 but widow’s peak only arrives in the eighteenth century, in an entry in Nathan Bailey’s Universal Etymological English Dictionary of 1721. He equates it with the bandor
Ray Ables Feb 10, 2013:
I stand corrected. Widow’s peak is a well-known English term for a V-shaped protrusion of hair at the forehead.

There has been a widespread superstition — I’ve found it recorded in Britain, Ireland and North America, and it was probably at one time a common belief throughout the English-speaking world — that a woman with this shape of forehead hair is destined to outlive her husband.

Some writers argue the superstition actually refers to another hair feature, the widow’s lock. G F Northall recorded in his Warwickshire Word-book in 1895 that it was “a small lock or fringe growing apart from the hair above the forehead”; he added, “Credulous persons believe that a girl so distinguished will become a widow soon after marriage.” Another version of the belief was recorded in Notes and Queries on 7 May 1853, which reproduced the report of a jury, dated 4 July 1692, on the physical examination of several women who were accused of witchcraft in Ipswich, Suffolk:

Upon searching the body of Widow Hoer, nothing appeared on her unnaturall, only her body verry much scratched, and on her head a strange lock of haire, verry long, and differing in color from the rest on her head, and matted or tangled...
Carol Gullidge Feb 10, 2013:
widow's peaks on men I know Wikipedia isn't the be-all and end-all, but this does - along with numerous other sites - ring true. See the images of widow's peaks on both men and women: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow's_peak

Notable people with widow's peaks include Paul Ryan,[16][17] Ronald Reagan,[17] Andrew Jackson.[17]

as well as fictional characters such as Count Dracula, Eddie Munster ...

There are special reasons behind the etymology of "widow's peak", which don't include widowers! So it's the same expression for both men and women. I have never, ever heard of a widower's peak - which would make no sense given the etymology, regardless of the gender of the person with this type of hairline!
Carol Gullidge Feb 10, 2013:
@ Jessie re yr comment posted beneath Ray's answer:

Yes, I agree it sounds really odd, but apparently that is just what it IS called! Try googling it, or going to the Reference link I provided - which is a site for men with receding hairlines of all types, not just the widow's peak variety!

Proposed translations

+5
7 hrs
Selected

widow's peak

agree with Carol (who should have posted as answer) that this is what it's called in English. See pics here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow's_peak



--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 7 hrs (2013-02-10 11:40:36 GMT)
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/pau...

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Note added at 13 hrs (2013-02-10 18:08:13 GMT)
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As Lisa points out, "widower's peak" would be the correct term since it is a man in this context

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Note added at 14 hrs (2013-02-10 19:14:04 GMT)
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hmm, out of curiousity I Googled and

"widower's peak" only gets 1,140 ghits
whereas "widow's peak" gets 312, 000!

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Note added at 3 days10 hrs (2013-02-13 14:35:34 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

could I point out that "entradas" is plural and relates to the hair receding at BOTH temples so this is quite simply called a widow's peak" in English. Some people are born with this, (i.e not balding as such but with a hairline that is receded on either side of a central "peak") while others develop it as they get older and/or it gets more "pronounced" as Noni has said.

"a receding hairline" however, is far more general and does not necessarily have "entradas" as it could be receding in a STRAIGHT line across the top or sides

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Note added at 3 days11 hrs (2013-02-13 16:09:42 GMT) Post-grading
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glad to have helped. Ray posted some interesting information as well regarding the etymology
Peer comment(s):
agree Richard Hill
3 hrs
Thanks Rich!
agree Lisa McCarthy : Or more correctly 'widower's peak'.
5 hrs
thanks Lisa:-) From ghits it seems it's far more common to use "widow's " for both sexes
agree Noni Gilbert Riley : Note the strong collocation of "pronounced" with "widow's peak" and google it - you'll see how many chaps have widow's peaks!!
6 hrs
Thanks Noni! Yep, can't even do a comb-over for this! I'm quite amazed at how many women have it (even Marilyn!)
agree Carol Gullidge : can't very well disagree with this :) However, I don't agree with widower's peak - even though it does sound odd when talking about men. But then, I suppose it's equivalent to talking about "male-pattern baldness" in women
7 hrs
Thanks Carol. Yep, I agree that "widow's peak" is heard more often, even for men
agree Ururod (X)
3 days 2 hrs
Many thanks Ururod!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thans to you and Carol, who proposed that answer first."
+2
5 mins

hair receding from each side

Don't know how else to say it

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Note added at 5 mins (2013-02-10 04:26:28 GMT)
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of the forehead

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Note added at 10 mins (2013-02-10 04:30:50 GMT)
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or: receding hairline on each side of his forehead
Peer comment(s):
neutral Billh : hair receding at the temples is the phrase you are looking for
4 hrs
The temples are further down on most people's heads. Feel free to suggest it as an answer if you'd like.
agree Carol Gullidge : what you're describing is called a "widow's peak" in English. See Reference entry/ No, it's also the name for that particular hairline on men. See the Wiki site, where it clearly applies to both men and women - strange though it may sound!
4 hrs
agree Jessie LN : ^ To Carol: I don't think men with receding hair gain a widow's peak.
7 hrs
Gracias. Yes, exactly.
Something went wrong...
+3
5 hrs

receding hairline

with a receding hairline....is probably the way to say it
Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldness

Peer comment(s):
agree Cristina Gonzalez : http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001177.htm
7 hrs
Thanks Cristina! Yes, it's that M shape that seems to be what the asker was not sure about. By the way, I've heard nothing about the escofia/escocia confusion.....
agree Cecilia Barraza-Mukherjee
7 hrs
Thanks Cecilia!
agree Lisa McCarthy
7 hrs
Thanks Lisa. Hope you've had a good weekend!
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

4 hrs
Reference:

http://www.belgraviacentre.com/blog/widows-peak-warning-of-hair-loss-in-men/

... Sometimes a widow’s peak is simply the pattern of a man’s natural hair growth, but if it becomes severely prominent or further receding is accompanied by thinning hair, it often means more hair loss is looming....

... This frontal hair loss, with a distinctive V-shaped hairline, is possibly the most stubborn area of hair loss to deal with. ...

etc, etc

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Note added at 4 hrs (2013-02-10 09:01:16 GMT)
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Sorry, this doesn't make it clear that we call this a widow's peak in English
Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree Yvonne Gallagher
2 hrs
many thanks gallagy2
agree Lisa McCarthy
8 hrs
many thanks Lisa
agree Noni Gilbert Riley : And if it's pronounced then it's probably increasing!
9 hrs
many thanks Noni. Yes, if it's growing more pronounced!
Something went wrong...
13 hrs
Reference:

Widower's peak / receding hairline

Reference:

http://www.belgraviacentre.com/blog/best-treatment-for-widows-peak-087/

Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree Carol Gullidge : except that site calls it a widow's peak (not widower's peak). It's the same site as the one I posted!
1 hr
Oooh sorry Carol, didn't see your ref was the same! It does mention 'widower's peak' for a man though (3rd line from top)
Something went wrong...
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