noirette

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A black-haired person, especially a woman.

   • For a time I was with a Noirette from North Africa, rebellious and intemperate, her frizzy hair shooting out as if her head had exploded in one of those stop-action photographs taken at a thousandth.
   • In the classical lexicon of blonde, brunette, and redhead, why has no distinction been made between women with brown and black hair? Or, consulting my high-school French, have women with black hair been dimissed? Noirette?
   • Definitely not Los Angeles -- where brunettes, noirettes, orangettes and Germanic blondes seem to thrive.
2. 2

   Especially of a woman

   Especially of a woman: black-haired.

   • And now, in the moment I should have focused on you, I found myself recalling the night I chased a pale blonde down an alley, as she complained to her voluptuous, noirette friend what a cheapskate I was.
   • The noirette woman smiled and motioned to the couch behind Alice.
   • “You seem distracted, my lady,” Elsie noted. / Emma focused. “No, not particularly,” she lied. / Her noirette maid raised an eyebrow. “I have just spent the last hour tying and untying your hair,” she said levelly.

The neighborhood