![]() ![]() Still, even back then, the infantilizing associations of "pigtail" in an Asian context might be demonstrated by The Mikado's lyrics: Google Ngrams for "his pigtail", "her pigtails" - I have no neat narrative to fit onto this, but you can see "pigtails" becoming a girl thing in the mid-20th century and the frequency of "his pigtail" dropping off. Note that our "home culture" in this case is 21st-century we have different cultural reference points for hairstyles (Pippi Longstocking, Britney Spears) than someone from the 1920s, so the words we use (or avoid) are naturally going to be different from theirs. The problem here is that we're taking an unfamiliar or exotic concept from a foreign culture and mapping it onto a concept that is undignified (in this case, both infantilizing and feminizing) in our home culture. Notice that the word "pigtail" itself is not problematic at all it's certainly fine to say to a little girl, "I like your pigtails." But in the context of Qing China, it's basically the same as if one were to use a word like "dress" or "skirt" to refer to a changshan (as opposed to using the Chinese word itself, or a less feminizing word such as "robe"). The short answer is "yes." The more "adult" or "encyclopedic" word for the Qing hairstyle would be queue. So my question is, can "pigtail" be insulting in certain context, like referring to the Qing Chinese hair style in the age of imperialism? (A ponytail differs in that it is not plaited.) 808/2 D ivide the ponytail in two, then plait to form two pigtails. Now chiefly: each of two tails of (usually plaited) hair hanging from either side of the head, as worn esp. 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. July 55 Sweetmeats.being great favourites with the ‘pigtails’.Ģ.a. Now rare or historical.ġ886 Cornhill Mag. colloquial (frequently derogatory and offensive). Prior to the early 20th century, in the morals of the day, it was simply casual speech - an informal reference to a group of people - any insult would come from the context, rather than the word itself:Ģb. ![]() In the 18th and 19th centuries British soldiers and sailors used to wear their hair in a pigtail. It is simply a valid description of a hairstyle. In this example, the word queue means a plait of hair hanging at the back of the head, like a pigtail.A pigtail is not insulting in current BE. For this role, he had to wear his hair in a queue.This use of queue, meaning a list in a software application, isn't restricted to Britain. Be careful to enter the data in the proper queue in our computer files.Here queue is used in the British sense of a line of people. To enter the classroom, the children were instructed to form a queue outside the door to the playground.In this example, cue refers to the tapered stick a pool player uses to strike the cue ball. The pool player picked up his cue to prepare to start the game of eight-ball. ![]() Here cue is used as a verb, meaning to present a cue, or prompt.
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