I noticed a friend of mine driving by with her granddaughter while I was out for a walk today. I thought to myself,she is a little towhead just like her mother was when she was young. That led me to wonder is it toe head,or towhead? And where did that saying come from? The answer to this one actually makes sense.
In colonial times families grew flax to make into fabric for clothing. Transforming the flax into thread was a complicated,time consuming process. After the flax was harvested it was soaked in water for several days to soften it so the inner fibers could be removed from the stalk. To separate the long thin fibers from the shorter,coarser ones,the flax was pulled through a bed of nails or combed in a process called towing. The shorter fibers were of lesser quality and were called tow. This led to the term towheads to describe people,particularly children whose hair resembled these strands. It makes me wonder why they didn't end up being called card heads...referring to carding wool!
Towhead is also an alluvial deposit in a river,such as a sandbar or small island formed from silt.
In colonial times families grew flax to make into fabric for clothing. Transforming the flax into thread was a complicated,time consuming process. After the flax was harvested it was soaked in water for several days to soften it so the inner fibers could be removed from the stalk. To separate the long thin fibers from the shorter,coarser ones,the flax was pulled through a bed of nails or combed in a process called towing. The shorter fibers were of lesser quality and were called tow. This led to the term towheads to describe people,particularly children whose hair resembled these strands. It makes me wonder why they didn't end up being called card heads...referring to carding wool!
Towhead is also an alluvial deposit in a river,such as a sandbar or small island formed from silt.
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