melonhead

See also: melon head

English

Etymology

Compound of melon +‎ head.

Noun

melonhead (plural melonheads)

1. (US) One of a group of legendary beings, known in parts of Connecticut, Michigan, and Ohio, generally described as small humanoids with bulbous heads who occasionally emerge from hiding-places to attack people.
   • 2005, Joseph A. Citro, “Fabled People and Places”, in Weird New England: Your Travel Guide to New England's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets, Sterling Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 63:

     Melonheads don’t seem to have developed the knack of raising food. Rather, they survive in the woods by dining on whatever they catch--fish, frogs, bugs, moles, or roadkill. That is, between their occasional human flesh feasts. Local legend holds that people sightseeing, biking, or hiking in the vicinity of any Melonhead habitat are likely to vanish, never to be seen again.

   • 2026 June 5, Jannette Quackenbush, “Ohio Cryptids”, in Cryptids of the Appalachian Heartland- a Little Field Guide to the Mysterious Creatures of Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, 21 Crows Dusk to Dawn Publishing, →ISBN, page 31:

     Melonhead stories appear in Michigan and Connecticut, though Ohio’s Peninsula stores are the most persistent

2. (Australia, US, informal, derogatory) A fool or idiot.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fool

   • 1992, P. J. Peterson, Liars, New York, N.Y. […]: Scholastic Inc., published 1994, →ISBN, page 162:

     Uncle Gene turned toward Dad. "Let the melonhead laugh. We'll show him, won't we, pard?"

   • 1999, Kevin Sampson, Powder: An Everyday Story of Rock 'N' Roll Folk, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 477:

     The picture showed the group, a gurning, multichinned James looking like a melonhead in the foreground, dressed in formal evening-wear and cummerbunds. How the fuck had they got hold of those pictures? The boys looked like a cabaret band. It was bad. It was very bad.

   • 2001 June, Lee Martin, chapter 2, in Quakertown: A Novel, Dutton, →ISBN, page 22:

     “Then stop being melon-heads. Goodness, I swear sometimes you don’t have the sense God gave a goose.”

   • 2005 April 21, Lee Harris, “Shefield and the Fan”, in alt.sports.baseball.bos-redsox‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Of course you should you melonhead. Why are you being so obtuse. You are just making my whole point.

References

• “melonhead n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present.