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Chris -- 2025-05-10
Google counts on Nov 7, 2006
1,430,000 unkempt
305,000 unkept
Analysis by Joe Krozel
“unkempt” means “deficient in order or neatness.” “Unkept” (i.e., “not kept”) can mean virtually the same thing if one draws on the sense of “keep” that means “to take care of, tend.” Quite honestly, I do not know whether “unkept” is strictly improper English for the sense I describe. At the top of my Google list I find Paul Brians’ “Common Errors in English Usage” which suggests that “unkept” is indeed improper when speaking of hair. (But if one allows the usage “unkept promises,” —www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/opinion/nyre … udget.html – Similar pages—then what else can follow? Someone?)
Let’s try this…
106,000 “unkempt hair” vs. 832 “unkept hair”
Examples:
DMusic.com | for indie musicians and fans | Free MP3 music …But Colmes – lazy eye, unkept hair, droopy features – has a face made for radio. Pirate radio. Garr!! 6. Chad Kroeger: It’s not just the massive head, ...
www.dmusic.com/forum/celebs/22410 – 58k – Cached – Similar pages
Physical appearances you refuse to date. – Page 2 – GreekChat.com …Also, guys with bad hygiene, extremely hairy legs (especially the ones that wear shorts), unkept hair (unless it looks goods on him), and those that wear …
www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.p … 301&page=2 – 81k – Cached – Similar pages
@U2 Forum – U2 Fan Communitygo crazy for a scruffy, haggard Bono: long unkept hair, dirty looking stubble, deep brackets in … long unkept hair= yummmmm a 45 year old rebel …
forum.atu2.com/forum.src?Action=Posts&Subject=9460&Topic=11&SubjStart= – 32k – Cached – Similar pages
cgen charactersDesc: Large muscular child with unkept hair and mostly covered in oil and grime. ... Desc: Slim good looking boy with dark unkept hair. ...
www.geocities.com/user1243uk/cgencharacters.html – 6k – Cached – Similar pages
NICE GUYS DO FINISH LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!And an overdose of Kleins accessories and makeup and $2 shop perfume, unbrushed and unkept hair. Red nails on hands and toes and red lipstick …
cracker.com.au/viewthread.aspx?threadid=141778&categoryid=11211 – 75k – Cached – Similar pages
The Sikhism Home Page: The KhalsaA symbol of hygiene and discipline as opposed to the matted unkept hair of ascetics. A Khalsa is expected to regularly wash and comb their hair as a matter …
www.sikhs.org/khalsa.htm – 15k – Cached – Similar pages
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