- eyebrows
- English folklore is convinced that eyebrows which meet are indicative of a person's character, but it cannot decide whether it is good or bad, and the honours are about even either way. For example: 'It's a good thing to have meeting eyebrows. You'll never know trouble' (various places) (N&Q 1s:7 (1853), 152); 'People with meeting eyebrows are thought fortunate fellows (Durham)' (Henderson, 1879: 112). On the other hand: 'Those who have the eyebrows met are witches and warlocks . . . unlucky to meet someone whose eyebrows met on New Years Day' (Denham Tracts, 1892: i. 325, 340), and 'They whose heaire of the eye browes doo touch or meete together, of all other are the woorst. They do shewe that he or she is a wicked personne . . . ' (Lupton, Thousand Notable Things (1579), quoted by Opie and Tatem).■ Opie and Tatem, 1989: 143-4; N&Q 185 (1943), 41-2; 186 (1944), 77, 123, 298-9.
A Dictionary of English folklore. Jacqueline Simpson & Steve Roud. 2014.