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dandruff

UK/ˈdændɹʌf/US/ˈdændɹəf/
nounB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,068 of 15,258leans spoken

Dandruff is small flakes of dry skin shed from the scalp. Get dandruff, an anti-dandruff shampoo, flakes of dandruff.

It is usually caused by a yeast that lives on everybody's skin and irritates some scalps more than others, which is why the shampoos that work are antifungal rather than merely moisturising. It is common, harmless and quite unrelated to washing often enough.

Horoporo · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of dandruff

  1. 1noundandruffSmall flakes of dry skin shed from the scalp.B1+

    “White flakes of dandruff covered the shoulders of his dark suit.”

dandruff is a skin condition.

Where it comes from

First recorded in 1545. The first part is obscure; the second comes from a Middle English word for a scab or scurf.

  1. Old Norse

    hrufa

  2. Middle English

    hurf — scab

  3. English, today

    dandruff

The word is first attested in 1545; the first element is obscure, but compare dander. The second element derives from a Northumbrian or East Anglian Middle English hurf (“scab”), from Old Norse hrufa. Compare Dutch roof, lb Roff. Related with Proto-Germanic hreubaz, hreufaz (“rough, scabby”), source of Old English hrēofla (“leprosy, leper”). More at reef (etymology 3).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Hair & Grooming

Practise this word

dandruff in the wild

  • Head & Shoulders (H&S) is an American brand of anti-dandruff and non-dandruff shampoo produced by parent company Procter & Gamble.

    Head & Shoulders

  • Similar symptoms in older children are more likely to be dandruff than cradle cap.

    Cradle cap

  • The term is similar to dandruff, when an excess of flakes becomes visible.

    Dander

  • Selsun Blue is an over-the-counter brand of dandruff shampoo now owned by Opella (formerly Sanofi Consumer Healthcare).

    Selsun Blue

  • Clear is a global brand of anti-dandruff shampoo, the manufacturer is owned by the British-Dutch company Unilever.

    Clear (shampoo)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.