Braid & Plait

Braid (pronounced breyd)

(1) To weave together strips or strands of; plait.

(2) To form by such weaving.

(3) To bind or confine (the hair) with a band, ribbon etc.

(4) A braided length or plait, especially of hair; a hair style formed by interweaving three or more strands of hair.

(5) To mix, or make uniformly soft, by beating, rubbing, or straining, as in preparing food (a now rare verb).

(6) To reproach; to upbraid (obsolete).

(7) A narrow, rope-like band formed by plaiting or weaving together several strands of silk, cotton, or other material, used as trimming for garments, drapery, etc; a band, ribbon, etc, for binding or confining the hair.

(8) A stranded wire composed of a number of smaller wires twisted together.

(9) A tubular sheath made of braided strands of metal placed around a central cable for shielding against electromagnetic interference.

(10) A tubular sheath made of braided strands of metal placed around a (usually) rubber) tube carrying (cooling or lubricating etc) fluids.

Pre 950: From the Middle English braiden, breiden & bræiden, from the Old English breġdan (to move quickly, pull, shake, swing, throw (wrestling), draw (sword), drag; bend, weave, braid, knit, join together; change color, vary, be transformed; bind, knot; move, be pulled; flash), from the Proto-Germanic bregdaną (to flicker, flutter, jerk, tug, twitch, flinch, move, swing), from the primitive Indo-European bhrēḱ- & bhrēǵ- (to shine, shimmer).  It was cognate with Scots brade & braid (to move quickly or suddenly), the Saterland Frisian braidje (to knit), the West Frisian breidzje, the Dutch breien (to knit), the Low German breiden, the Bavarian bretten (to move quickly, twitch), the Icelandic bregða (to move quickly, jerk), the Faroese bregða (to move quickly, react swiftly; to draw (sword)) and the Faroese bregda (to plaid, braid, twist, twine). From the same root came the Old High German brettan (to draw a sword).

The sense of "a deceit, stratagem, trick" is attested from circa 1300, the related meaning "sudden or quick movement" (in part from the Old English stems gebrægd (craft, fraud) & gebregd (commotion)) noted in the same era.  The Old Norse bragð (deed, trick) existed in the same sense as the Old English.  The meaning "anything plaited or entwined" is from the 1520s and soon cam especially to be associated with hair.  Braided, the past-participle adjective from braid, came in 1901 to be used by geographers to describe the flow of certain rivers and streams.  The Old English upbregdan (bring forth as a ground for censure) the construct being the adverb up + bregdan (move quickly, intertwine) was mirrored by a similar formation in Middle Swedish: upbrygdha.  The meaning "scold" is first attested from the late thirteenth century.  Braid is a noun, verb & adjective, braiding is a noun & verb, braidless is an adjective, braided is a verb & adjective and braider is a noun; the noun plural is braids.  Forms (hyphenated and not regardless of the conventions) such as re-braid, de-braid & un-braid are created as required.

Plait (pronounced pleyt or plat)

(1) A braid, especially of hair or straw.

(2) A pleat or fold, as of cloth.

(3) To braid, as hair or straw.

(4) To make, as a mat, by braiding.

(5) A loaf of bread of several twisting or intertwining parts

(6) A rare spelling of pleat

1350–1400: From the Middle English pleit & pleyt, from the Middle French pleit, from the Old French ploit, from the Latin plicitum, neuter of plicitus, past participle of plicāre (to fold).  The Latin plectō was akin to Old Norse flétta, the Danish flette and the Russian сплетать (spletatʹ).  Ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European plek- (to plait).  The late fourteenth century spelling of the verb was pleiten, (to fold (something), gather in pleats, double in narrow strips (also "to braid or weave (something)) directly from the noun plait and the Old French pleir (to fold), a variant of ploier & ployer (to fold, bend), again from the Latin plicāre (to fold).

Lindsay Lohan (bottom row, centre) in Sesame Street's "Braid-y Bunch" (episode 3357, 1994).

The often confused platt is from the Middle English platten, and is an obsolete spelling of plat (material made by interweaving, especially material made by interweaving straw, used to make hats); thus the connection.  The verb plat (to interweave) was a late fourteenth century variant of plait, the related forms being platted & platting.  Pleat (to fold or gather in pleats) was from the 1560s, used as the verb version of the noun plait and may even have represented an alternative pronunciation.  The noun pleat (a fold) is from the 1580s and was another variant of the noun plait.  Curiously, all etymologists note the absence of the word from the printed records of the in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries so either it continued only as an oral form or was revived, most suspecting the former.  Plait is a noun, verb & adjective, plaiting is a noun & verb, plaited is a verb & adjective, plaitless is an adjective and plaiter is a noun; the noun plural is plaits.  Forms (hyphenated and not regardless of the conventions) such as re-plait, de-plait & un-plait are created as required.

Famous weather forecaster Greta Thunberg (b 2003) often appears with either a single plait or a pair.  One of the few questions she’s never been asked is what goes through her mind when deciding which.

Although it’s a modern convention to make a distinction when involving hair, plaits and braids are the same thing.  A braid is a structure created by interlacing three or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair.  Whereas weaving usually involves two separate, perpendicular groups of strands (warp and weft), a braid is usually long and narrow, with each component strand functionally equivalent in zigzagging forward through the overlapping mass of the others.  The most simple and common hair braid is a flat, solid, three-stranded structure but more complex braids can be constructed from an arbitrary number of strands to create a wider range of structures.

Honeywell Genesis Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Plenum Communication Cable (Cat6).

In engineering uses such as hoses (typically those which need to withstand high throughput volumes, temperature or pressure) “braided” is a common convention, even if “woven mesh” would often be a more accurate description of the description.  In data cabling (where usually only two strands are involved), the convention is to describe the result as a “twisted” length, a concept of some significance over the last half-century.  In 2023 the industry noted (rather than celebrated) the 50^th anniversary of Ethernet, the networking protocol which prevailed while others died; Ethernet at times wasn’t the best of the fastest of the competing alternatives but it was accessible and it turned out to be adaptable to new technologies with scope for development.  Cables were central to Ethernet and as the protocol evolved, so did the cables which along which travelled most of the packets transmitted: even data sent or received via a WiFi connection has probably spent some time in a twisted pair cable.  The twists are expressed in “twists per inch” (TpI) or (the less common) “twists per centimetre” although surprisingly, this is neither an ISO (a specification set by the International Standards Organization) nor an industry standard, TpIs determined by the manufacturer.  Cables with untwisted wires used to be common (and are fondly remembered by cablers because of the ease of use) but since the advent of the Cat5e standard, twisted pairs have become almost universal, the advantage being the reduction in electromagnetic interference (EMI) and crosstalk between adjacent pairs, twisting also helping to maintain signal integrity over longer distances.

Braided radiator hose on Chevrolet 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) V8 (L89).

Once curious exception is the braided hose.  These are flexible, metallic structures used to strengthen the rubber, synthetic or composite hoses used to carry often pressurised fluids in a variety of machinery.  Fabricated usually with stainless-steel strands, they provide a wrapping around the hose and retain the necessary flexibility of movement while greatly increasing strength, pressure capacity and resistance to wear.  Why the hoses, which technically are a weaved mesh, are called braided is undocumented but it’s presumed the origin was in ad-hoc modifications created out of necessity, probably using braided fibres and the nomenclature became part of the pre-modern engineering vernacular, later to be adopted by commerce.  Used extensively in aviation, they’re popular too with those who build heavy-duty engines and even some who just like the cool visual effect.

A thick, three-strand braid which, by convention, is regarded as a hybrid, becoming a plait at the point at which the construction begins to hang free from the scalp.  The perception of thickness is accentuated by the use of a loose weave.  

Although etymologists insist plait and braid are synonyms, hairdressers distinguish between the two.  To them, a braid is a braiding of the hair where the strands are arranged in a manner which follows the contour of the scalp without hanging free.  A plait is a braid which separates from the scalp and hangs free.  There are also hybrids where the braid begins tightly adhered to the scalp before cascading free.

Celebrity Kim Kardashian (b 1980) with Fulani braids, 2018.

Hair has been braided for millennia across many cultures although it’s only in recent years the politics of hair-styles have been absorbed into identity politics.  Attempts have been made to assert exclusive cultural ownership of certain styles with the claim their adoption by the hegemonic class constitutes cultural appropriation.  In modern identity politics it means it’s wrong for the dominant group which enjoys inherent privilege to borrow cultural signifiers from minorities if they’re to be used merely for purposes of fashion or any other purpose beyond the original cultural context.  By contrast, defined minorities may adopt from the dominant culture because this is an aspect of assimilation (although within minority communities such acts may be criticized as a kind of "constructive cultural imposition").  Still, some continue to test the waters and Condoleezza Rice’s (b 1954; US secretary of state 2005-2009) performances of the works of Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) have only ever been admired while recently, a clip circulated of African American musician Jon Batiste (b 1986) playing the opening notes of Ludwig van Beethoven’s (circa 1770–1827) Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano (Für Elise (For Elise)) in the vein of Blues and Gospel Music without (much) adverse comment.

Singer Adele (b 1988), Notting Hill Carnival, 2020.  Instagram responded; posting on X (formerly known as Twitter) would probably have unleashed something worse.

The only exception to the rule appears to be where one is granted a kind of informal certificate as one who practices “cultural appreciation”.  This has no precise meaning and seems to be considered issued when the social media consensus (ie the volume of one pack shouting down another) emerges and is a thing based on the history of the individual who is a suspected appropriator rather than a specific act.  In other words, white folks with runs on the woke board are granted greater leeway.  Conscious perhaps there are no points to be gained from participation in this culture-battle, libertarians have generally stayed uncharacteristically silent but the right has objected.  Generally insensitive to the importance of signifiers to any culture except their own, the prevailing conservative view seems to be (1) that it’s absurd mere hair styles can be taken seriously and (2) part of the culture into which minorities wish to assimilate includes a tradition of tolerance.  The left has also commented, noting that in focusing on matters such as hair braids, activists are allowing themselves to be distracted from the issue of structural economic disadvantage which is the basic causative factor in inequality.  The debate continues.

As a general principle, the longer and thicker the hair, the more spectacular will be the braid or plat.  Ms Alyona Kravchenko (left) from Odessa last had a haircut some 27 years ago, her hair now 72 inches (1.8 m) in length.  Moscow-based Ms Olga Naumova (right) didn't make clear if she was truly an acersecomic but did reveal that in infancy her hair was so thin her parents covered her head, usually with a babushka headscarf.  It's obviously since flourished and her luxuriant locks are now 62 inches (1.57 m) long.  These are both classic three-strand braid-plait hybrids.

Lindsay Lohan with plait, Art Biennale Party, St Regis Venice San Clemente Palace, Venice, May 2015.

Acersecomic

Acersecomic (pronounced a-sir-suh-kome-ick)

A person whose hair has never been cut.

1623: From the Classical Latin acersecomēs (a long-haired youth) the word borrowed from the earlier Ancient Greek form ἀκερσεκόµης (with unshorn hair), constructed from komē (the hair of the head (the source of the –comic)) + keirein (to cut short) + the prefix a- (not; without).  The Latin acersecomēs wasn’t a term of derision or disapprobation, merely descriptive, it being common for Roman and Greek youth to wear their hair long until manhood.  Acersecomic appeared in English dictionaries as early as 1656, the second instance noted some thirty years later.  Although of dubious linguistic utility even in seventeenth century English, such entries weren’t uncommon in early English dictionaries as editors trawled through lists of words from antiquity to conjure up something, there being some marketing advantage in being the edition with the most words.  It exists now in a lexicographical twilight zone, its only apparent purpose being to appear as an example of a useless word.

The -comic part of the word is interesting.  It’s from the Ancient Greek komē in one of the senses of coma: a diffuse cloud of gas and dust that surrounds the nucleus of a comet.  From antiquity thus comes the sense of long, flowing hair summoning an image of the comet’s trail in the sky.  The same -comic ending turns up in two terms that are probably more obscure even than acersecomic: acrocomic (having hair at the tip, as in a goat’s beard (acro- translates as “tip”) and xanthocomic (a person with yellow hair), from the Greek xanthos (yellow).

Fifteen year old Skye Merchant was genuinely acersecomic until July 2021 when she had her first haircut, part of her fund-raising efforts for cancer research.  The trimmed locks were donated to cancer patients.

Lindsay Lohan as Rapunzel, The Real Housewives of Disney, Saturday Night Live (SNL), 2012.

In recent interviews, Russian model Olga Naumova didn't make clear if she was truly an acersecomic but did reveal that in infancy her hair was so thin her parents covered her head, usually with a babushka headscarf.  It's obviously since flourished and her luxuriant locks are now 62 inches (1.57 m) long, a distinctive feature she says attracts (1) requests for selfies, (2) compliments, (3) propositions decent & otherwise, (4) public applause (in Thailand), (5) requests for technical advice, usually from women asking about shampoo, conditioner & other product while (6) on-line, men sometimes suggest marriage, often by the expedient of elopement.  Perhaps surprisingly, the Moscow-based model doesn't do "anything extraordinary" to maintain the mane beyond shampoo, conditioner and the odd oil treatment, adding that the impressive length and volume she attributes wholly to the roll of the genetic dice.  Her plaits and braids are an impressive sight.

Olga Naumova in motion.

A possible acersecomic although there is some evidence of at least the odd trim.  These are among the less confronting images at People of Walmart which documents certain aspects of the North American experience in the social media age.  Users seem divided whether People of Walmart is a celebration of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), a chronicle of decadence or a condemnation of deviance.