Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
brunet, brunette (adj., n.)
The adjective describes someone of relatively dark coloring, of hair especially (compare BLOND), with the brunet spelling supposed to be applied to males, brunette to females. In fact both spellings refer usually to females (a man more often will be called “dark-haired”), although brunette is the usual generic spelling, especially for the noun. Edited English tries to keep the masculine-feminine spelling distinction, but in lower levels practice is less rigid.
