Beard of the Month - February 2012

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Beard of the Month -- December 2011

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Sir James Murray

And you thought we were going to pick Santa, didn't you?

James Murray was the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and worked on it for 36 years until his death.  The full dictionary wasn't complete until thirteen years later, encompassing 12 volumes and containing almost 500,000 words. 

Oh and in case you were wondering how we know this, it's all in an awesome book called The Professor and the Madman. You should read it.

The OED definition of 'beard':

beard, n.

Pronunciation:  /bɪəd/

Forms:  OE–ME beard, (ME bærd, beord, burde), ME–15 berd, (ME–15 berde), ME–15 beerd(e, 15 (Sc. baird, beird), 15–16 bearde, 15– beard.

Etymology:  Common Germanic: Old English beard   ( < earlier *bard  , *bærd  ) = Middle Dutch baert  , Dutch baard  , Old High German, modern German bart  , Old Norse *barðr   retained only in compounds as Langbarðr   (but cognate with barð   neuter, ‘brim, edge, beak, prow,’ whence sense 11 below) < Germanic *bardo-z   (not known in Gothic); cognate with Old Slavonic barda   beard. Kinship to Latin barba   is, on phonetic grounds, doubtful.

1.  The hair that grows upon the chin, lips, and adjacent parts of an adult man's face; now usually excluding the moustache, or hair of the upper lip.

via: Oxford English Dictionary

Beard of the Month -- November 2011

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W.G. Grace
The biggest badass in the history of Cricket.

And if you know anything about Cricket (which we don't) check out his stats here.

Beard of the Month -- October 2011

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 Edward Gorey

Writer and Illustrator known for his creepy and grim works.

“My mission in life is to make everybody as uneasy as possible. I think we should all be as uneasy as possible, because that's what the world is like.”  

Read more about Edward Gorey and his work here. 

Beard of the Month -- September 2011

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Mr. Sexy Vest

Beard of the Month -- August 2011

Blackbeard

"A huge man with fiery eyes and a booming voice, he was fond of a scarlet cloak, and went into battle with lighted, slow-burning cannon fuses tucked into his hair, and six pistols slung across his chest. Some said he was fond of pouring gunpowder into his rum and setting it ablaze before downing it."

Read more about him here.

Beard of the Month -- July 2011

Brian Wilson

Fear the Beard 

"Lets be honest here it's just doing what it wants and it…it just does what it wants"