balding

adjectiveB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,258 of 15,258neutral

Balding means gradually losing the hair on your head. A balding man, going balding, balding at the crown.

It is gentler than bald because it describes a process rather than a state, which is why it is what people say about themselves. Most balding is the inherited male pattern kind, and it affects the majority of men eventually.

Definitions of balding

1adjectivebaldingGradually losing the hair on your head.B1+
“He was a balding man in his forties who wore a cap to hide it.”

balding is a state.

Where it comes from

Middle English
balled
English
bald
English, today
balding

Built from

bald · Middle English — bald
balle · Middle English — ball, round object, knoll, head

bald comes from Middle English balled, from bal. From Middle English balled, ballid, bald (“bald”), of unknown origin. Probably formed from Middle English bal, balle (“ball, round object, knoll, head”). Compare gmq-oda bældet (“bald”). An alternate etymology relates it to Old English bǣl (“fire, flame; funeral pyre”), from Proto-Germanic bēlą. Compare Albanian balë (“white spot on the forehead”) and ballë (“forehead”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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