baldy

UK/ˈbɔːl.di/US/ˈbɔl.di/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,957 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: baldies

A baldy is somebody with no hair on their head. Hey baldy, call him a baldy, a right baldy.

It is a playground taunt and stays one, so it is used to faces only between friends. The spelling baldie is as common, and both are informal to the point of being unwritable in anything serious.

Definitions of baldy

1nounbaldySomebody with no hair on their head.C1
“The boys at school called him baldy after his head was shaved for an operation.”

baldy is a person.

Where it comes from

Middle English
balled
English
bald
English, today
baldy

Built from

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

From bald + -y + nominalizing]] suffix>. 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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