Widow’s Peak

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yes. Hi, this is Sue Carnam, and I’m calling from Kilmarnock, Virginia.

Hi, Sue. Welcome to the show.

Hello, Sue.

Thank you.

Well, I have two very handsome men in my life, my son and my grandson.

And they share a not entirely uncommon hairline, which is a funnel hairline.

It’s sort of triangulated and points toward their eyebrow.

It’s not visible really when they have their hair long in the wintertime,

But when it’s summer and they shave their hair down like the boys tend to do, it’s visible.

I’ve heard this sort of trait referred to as having a widow’s peak.

I’m not exactly sure if the term applies to widowers, but neither of my sons are widows.

I wonder if the term goes back to some time when maybe widows may have had to keep their heads covered or, you know, sort of accustomed to keep their hair covered.

And this was showing some sort of, I don’t know, rebellion or whether it has to do with the fact that it’s peaked somehow, triangulated.

And I’ve always heard this referred to, but I just never knew why.

And I wondered if you could maybe clear it up for me.

Well, yeah, it’s pretty straightforward.

The term widow’s peak goes back to the 17th century, at least.

And it goes back to this bit of folklore, this belief that if your hair is growing to a point on your forehead, then it’s an omen of early widowhood.

Of course, if you’re male, then that doesn’t really apply.

And it may be that this pointy part of the hair suggests a peak of a hood that a widow might be wearing while she’s in mourning.

Oh.

Well, thank you for clearing that up.

There’s an interesting genetic fact.

A widow’s peak is a dominant genetic trait, so it is widely studied by geneticists.

Oh, it is.

Yeah, yeah. It’s something you can use to track heritage or just kind of a really obvious marker if you’re just trying to prove different facets of heredity.

Oh, interesting. Well, I’ll have to look more closely at the family photos now and see how that may have passed down.

Get those handsome family photos.

Yeah, handsome. I noticed you said handsome.

I didn’t want the boys to hear me talking about them in vain.

So I appreciate your tolerating my bragging a little bit.

No, that’s perfectly allowed.

That’s what you’re supposed to do.

They must be handsome.

Yeah.

Thank you so much for spending some time with us, Sue.

We appreciate it.

Well, thank you.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

There’s a term you’ve been using your whole life.

And one day it hits you.

You’re like, why do I say this?

Well, this is the place to sort that out.

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