dishevelled

This is one of those words that has hidden within it a long forgotten metaphor – and a metaphor that is almost the exact reverse of its present meaning.

Nowadays we use dishevelled to mean "not neat, untidy." But if we go back to the Middle English period, we find that buried away inside this word is the idea of being bald.

Dishevelled came into Middle English from Old French, from a French word family (chevel, cheveu) meaning "hair" which, in turn, derives from the Latin word for head. There was a Latin word discapillare which meant "stripped of hair, shaven" or (to put it more bluntly) bald. This became, first, the French word deschevelé, and then, the English word dishevelled.

Although it retained its connection with hair, "dishevelled" came to mean "untidy hair, hair that was disarranged, hanging loose, flung about in disorder, unkempt." From this the meaning spread to apply more broadly to anything that was untidy or not neat.

Given the history of the word, there is some irony in the fact that the one thing a bald man’s hair never is, is dishevelled :)

(source - Kel Richards)