subs. (popular).—Red hair. Used attributively, and also as a proper name. The adjectival form is CARROTTY. An analogous colloquialism is GINGER-HACKLED, which see for synonyms.
1685. S. WESLEY, Maggots, 57. The Ancients … Pure CARROTS call’d pure threads of beaten gold. [M.]
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew. CARROTS: Red hair’d People.
1703. T. BAKER, Tunbridge Walks, quoted in J. Ashton’s Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, I., 129. Jenny Trapes! What that CARROT-pated Jade.
1748. SMOLLETT, Roderick Random, ch. xiv. Not to appear before Mr. Cringer till I had parted with my CARROTY locks.
1848. THACKERAY, The Book of Snobs, ch. vii. ‘Blanche, with her radish of a nose, and her CARROTS of ringlets.’ Ibid. (1855), The Newcomes, ch. xxii. ‘Tom is here with a fine CARROTY beard.’
1864. MARK LEMON, The Jest Book, p. 205. ‘CARROTS CLASSICALLY CONSIDERED.’
| Why scorn red hair? The Greeks, we know | |
| (I note it here in charity), | |
| Had taste in beauty, and with them | |
| The graces were all Χάριται! |
1882. Daily Telegraph, Oct. 6, p. 2, col. 1. The two elder of the party were a boy and a girl of unmistakably Irish parentage, and with unkempt and CARROTTY heads of hair.
TAKE A CARROT! (common).—A vulgar insult; equivalent to calling one a fool, or telling one to ‘go to hell.’ The phrase was originally obscene [Cf., Et ta sœur! aime-t-elle les radis?] and applied to women only.
