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Pippi Longstocking

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Pippi Longstocking as portrayed by Inger Nilsson
A very realistic painting of Pippi Longstocking and her pet monkey, Mr. Nilsson.

Etymology

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Named after the character created by Astrid Lindgren, calque of Swedish Pippi Långstrump.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Pippi Longstocking (plural Pippi Longstockings)

  1. A person, especially a girl or woman, with long or flamboyant red hair, especially in pigtails or parted down the middle, and prominent freckles.
    • 2007, Karen Robards, Ghost Moon, Random House:
      Little and skinny for ten years old, cursed with waist-length hair and freckles that all the kids teased made her look just like Pippi Longstocking, she had been, that day, the butt of jokes from the entire fifth grade.
    • 2009, Rachel Shteir, Gypsy: the Art of the Tease, Yale University Press, page 140:
      She has threaded rags through her hair, tying it in two Pippi Longstocking braids.
    • 2010, Laura DuPriest, Natural Beauty: Pamper Yourself with Salon Secrets at Home, Random House, page 15:
      If I turned around, you could see a bizarre array of silver clippies, and a “Pippi Longstocking” part down the middle.
    • 2011, Julia Watts, Finding H. F., Bella Books:
      Put her in pigtails and stick her finger in a light socket, and she’d be Pippi Longstocking.
    • 2012, Kate Bornstein, A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology, and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today, Beacon Press:
      I was positively Pippi Longstocking, minus the pigtails.
  2. A person, especially a girl or woman, given to headstrong, wild behaviour, flights of fancy, or irrepressible optimism.
    Synonym: Pollyanna
    • 2002 October 23, Ella Taylor with Frida (reviewer), “Sex-mad and Self-obsessed”, in LA Weekly:
      Then we’re swept back to her school days, where we see her giggling like a regular Pippi Longstocking as she spies on Rivera (Alfred Molina) applying his creative juices to an artist’s model while being berated by his wife (Valeria Golino).
    • 2014, P. V. Lundqvist, The Counterfeit Father: A Tony Pandy Mystery, Stick Raven Press:
      You’re a regular Pippi Longstocking, you know that?
    • 2015, Patrice Vecchione, Step Into Nature: Nurturing Imagination and Spirit in Everyday Life, Simon & Schuster, page 10:
      Have I discovered my inner Pippi Longstocking?

Translations

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