a.
1. Having a long head: a. of persons, dolichocephalic; b. of things.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Plants, ii. 24. I experimented on both the oval and long-headed glands.
1888. Pall Mall Gaz., 13 Sept., 11/2. The men, who are wont to claim superior business cunning, are literally more long-headed (‘dolichocephalic’).
1890. Huxley, in 19th Cent., Nov., 757. People who are as regularly broad-headed as the Swedes and Germans are long-headed.
1900. Daily News, 31 July, 6/5. The long-headed Neolithic man.
2. Of great discernment or foresight; discerning, shrewd, far-seeing.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Long-headed, wise, of great reach and foresight.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 52, ¶ 3. Being a long-headed Gentlewoman, I am apt to imagine she has some further Design than you have yet penetrated.
1721. Amherst, Terræ Filius, x. 49. The heads of colleges, d’ye see, being, most of them, long-headed men, argue logically upon this point.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Long-headed, cunning, subtle, wise, artful.
1815. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary (1876), IV. 301. Madame … was a woman that the Scotch would call long-headed.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, lxvi. Men of the world, long-headed customers, knowing dogs.
1864. Lowell, McClellan or Lincoln? Pr. Wks. (1890), V. 173. Mr. Lincoln is a long-headed and long-purposed man.
Hence Longheadedness.
1863. Lytton, Caxtoniana, I. xi. 188. The practical long-headedness, the ready adaptation of shrewd wit to immediate circumstance.
1866. Lowell, Swinburne’s Trag., Pr. Wks. (1890), II. 128. Ulysses was the type of long-headedness.
1880. Dawkins, Early Man in Brit., ix. 324. The Iberic element in the population of Spain has mainly contributed to the long-headedness of the modern Spaniard.
