# Widows Peak **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows-peak/151158 "2003-01-27T03:43:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![crystalboetel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e495f1/32.png) [@crystalboetel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crystalboetel)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows-peak/151158/1 "2003-01-27T03:43:55Z")
What is the origin of the “widows peak” used when describing a V-shaped hair line? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows-peak/151158/2 "2003-01-27T03:53:14Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, **crystalboetel**. From [Word Origins:](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorw.htm) > [@](#): > > The use of “peak” to refer to a point of hair on the forehead dates to 1833. “Widow’s peak” dates to 1849. The use of “peak” to refer to the beak or bill of a headdress, particularly a widow’s hood, dates to 1530. So the term derives from a mourning hood. ---
**Author:** ![SnugTheJoiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@SnugTheJoiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnugTheJoiner)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widows-peak/151158/3 "2003-01-27T05:24:26Z")
I believe that it was my illustrious ancestress (and–sigh!–world-class screw-up) MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, who popularized the widow’s-peak headress. She wore it all her life after the death of her husband. You can see it just about every portrait ever made of her, and it really is very fetching, as it sets off her heart-shaped face. (Of course she knew that!)