Word for the Wise

January 05, 2007 Broadcast

Topic: Cowlick

Since the turn of the 17th century, English speakers have been using cowlick to refer to a lock or tuft of hair growing in a different direction from the rest of the hair. The earliest known citation for that term comes from one R. Haydock, who described how the locks… called cow-lickes, are made turning upwards.

So here's a question to chew over. Does cowlick have its origin in the scruffy look created by cows grooming their own hides into a fine and slothful state of disarray? Or does it originate in a human coiffure looking as if a cow had been licking it? Before we tell, we can't resist passing along a lick or two of cow saliva trivia. Back during the Renaissance, cow saliva was reputed to cure male baldness, and many a concoction was cooked up for courtiers hoping to regain a full head of hair. Luckily it's easy to come by cow saliva; the bovines produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 liters daily.

So here's the answer: the cowlick takes its name from what hair looks like after a cow licks it. From what we've been told, the coif licked into place by a cow stays that way for quite a while. And although we have yet to see it for ourselves, we've heard of a modern inventor developing a hair gel out of cow saliva.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.