Sunday Word: Tonsorial
tonsorial [ton-sawr-ee-uhl, -sohr-]
adjective:
1 of or relating to a barber or barbering
2 relating to hairdressing
3 manipulation
Examples:
I've got a confession to make - I've been cutting my own hair. And judging by the tonsorial terrors I've been seeing in my neighbourhood, I bet you have been, too. (Charles Purcell, I've been cutting my own hair: Confessions of a DIY barber, The Sydney Morning Herald, August 2021)
Why, that suggests there's something wrong with it. That it's some sort of ailment and that all bald men desire a return to the tonsorial abundance of our youth (or at least, of our early middle age). (Peter Ormerod, A cure for baldness is the last thing I want, The Guardian, June 2022)
Thwarted just when he has the throat of the villain he most wants in his hands - the evil Judge Turpin, who sent the then-named Benjamin Barker to prison years earlier on false charges - the brooding tonsorial artist expands his killing plans to include all who sit in his barber chair. (Lisa Schwarzbaum, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Entertainment, January 2008)
In front of a tonsorial saloon on the avenue our boys espied a Dutchman who formerly carried on business in Pawtucket. (Ansel D Nickerson, A Raw Recruit's War Experiences)
Our hats removed, the results of Old Colonial's tonsorial operations are made fully apparent. (William Delisle Hay, Brighter Britain!)
(click to enlarge)
Origin:
'pertaining to barbers,' 1765, from -al + Latin tonsorius 'of or pertaining to shearing or shaving,' from tonsor 'a shaver, barber, shearer, clipper,' from tonsus, past participle of tondere 'to shear, shave, clip, crop,' from PIE tend-, from root tem- 'to cut.' (Online Etymology Dictionary)
Tonsorial is a fancy word that describes the work of those who give shaves and haircuts. (It can apply more broadly to hairdressers as well.) It derives from the Latin verb tondēre, meaning 'to shear, clip, or crop.' (Another descendant, tonsor, is an archaic word for a barber.) You might be more familiar with the related noun tonsure, which refers to the shaven crown or patch worn by monks and other clerics, or the religious rite of clipping the hair of one being admitted as a cleric. The verb tonsure means 'to shave the head of' or 'to confer the tonsure upon.' (Merriam-Webster)