blond/blonde

Hi!

In the dictionary, I found that "blonde" is usually used for girls and women, and "blond" for boys and men. And some people say that these days "blond" is used more for both sexes.
Which is right and is the sentence below OK?
I'd like to hear about your opinion.

For a reference, the words are used as a adjective.

ex) The girl has a blond hair and blue eyes.

Thank you as always!

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by pb

ex) The girl has a blond hair and blue eyes.

(hair is non-count, so "a" is not necessary: The girl has blond hair and blue eyes.)

Both blond and blonde were borrowed into English from Middle French: blond (masculine) and blonde (feminine). As a noun, both BLONDE and BLOND are used in Modern English, but the former spelling (BLONDE) may be considered sexists (i.e., not politically correct) by some, which means, BLONDE is acceptable, but just not preferred by some speakers. As an adjective, the spelling BLOND is preferred. The reason being, adjectives modify things, such as wood and hair which lack gender (i.e., Wood is neither male nor female.) :wink:

Originally Posted by Random House Unabridged Dictionary

The spelling BLONDE is still widely used for the NOUN that specifies a woman or girl with fair hair:

‘The blonde with the baby in her arms is my anthropology professor.’

Some people object to this as an unnecessary distinction, preferring BLOND for all persons:

“My sister is thinking of becoming a blond for a while.”

As an ADJECTIVE, the word is more usually spelled BLOND in reference to either sex:

"an energetic blond girl"
"two blond sons"

although the form BLONDE is occasionally still used of a female:

"the blonde model and her escort"

The spelling BLOND is almost always used for the adjective describing hair, complexion, etc.:

"His daughter has blond hair and hazel eyes."

Originally Posted by ‘Modern American Usage (2003)

“to avoid appearing sexist, it is best to refrain altogether from using BLONDE as a noun. In fact, some readers will find even the adjective BLONDE to be sexist when it modifies ‘woman’ and not ‘hair.’

Originally Posted by Davidson’s [i

Watchwords[/i] (2001)]
BLOND OR BLOND: As nouns, write ‘blond’ for males, ‘blonde’ for females. As and adjective for either sex, write ‘blond.’

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All the best, :D

[Francois]

They don't like it because noun-adjective agreement is freedom grammar ;)

FRC