Pippi Longstocking

English

Pippi Longstocking as portrayed by Inger Nilsson

A very realistic painting of Pippi Longstocking and her pet monkey, Mr. Nilsson.

Etymology

Named after the character created by Astrid Lindgren, calque of Swedish Pippi Långstrump.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒkɪŋ

Noun

Pippi Longstocking (plural Pippi Longstockings)

1. A person, especially a girl or woman, with long or flamboyant red hair, especially in pigtails or parted down the middle, and prominent freckles.
   • 2007, Karen Robards, Ghost Moon, Random House:

     Little and skinny for ten years old, cursed with waist-length hair and freckles that all the kids teased made her look just like Pippi Longstocking, she had been, that day, the butt of jokes from the entire fifth grade.

   • 2009, Rachel Shteir, Gypsy: the Art of the Tease, Yale University Press, page 140:

     She has threaded rags through her hair, tying it in two Pippi Longstocking braids.

   • 2010, Laura DuPriest, Natural Beauty: Pamper Yourself with Salon Secrets at Home, Random House, page 15:

     If I turned around, you could see a bizarre array of silver clippies, and a “Pippi Longstocking” part down the middle.

   • 2011, Julia Watts, Finding H. F., Bella Books:

     Put her in pigtails and stick her finger in a light socket, and she’d be Pippi Longstocking.

   • 2012, Kate Bornstein, A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology, and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today, Beacon Press:

     I was positively Pippi Longstocking, minus the pigtails.

2. A person, especially a girl or woman, given to headstrong, wild behaviour, flights of fancy, or irrepressible optimism.

   Synonym: Pollyanna

   • 2002 October 23, Ella Taylor with Frida (reviewer), “Sex-mad and Self-obsessed”, in LA Weekly:

     Then we’re swept back to her school days, where we see her giggling like a regular Pippi Longstocking as she spies on Rivera (Alfred Molina) applying his creative juices to an artist’s model while being berated by his wife (Valeria Golino).

   • 2014, P. V. Lundqvist, The Counterfeit Father: A Tony Pandy Mystery, Stick Raven Press:

     You’re a regular Pippi Longstocking, you know that?

   • 2015, Patrice Vecchione, Step Into Nature: Nurturing Imagination and Spirit in Everyday Life, Simon & Schuster, page 10:

     Have I discovered my inner Pippi Longstocking?

Usage notes

Pippi Longstocking's full name, in the original Swedish, is Pippilotta Viktualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump; often translated as Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim's Daughter Longstocking.

Translations

a girl with flamboyant red hair in pigtails and freckles

• Esperanto: Pipi Ŝtrumpolonga
• Estonian: Pipi Pikksukk
• Finnish: Peppi Pitkätossu
• French: Fifi Brindacier f
• German: Pippi Langstrumpf f
• Hebrew: בילבי גרב-ברך f (bilbi gerev berekh), בילבי בת-גרב f (bilbi bat gerev), בילבי f (bilbi), גילגי f (gilgi)
• Icelandic: Lína Langsokkur
• Italian: Pippi Calzelunghe f
• Japanese: 長くつ下のピッピ (ながくつしたのピッピ, Nagakutsushita no Pippi)
• Macedonian: Пипи Долгиот Чорап f (Pipi Dolgiot Čorap)
• Russian: Пе́ппи Длинныйчуло́к f (Pɛ́ppi Dlinnyjčulók)
• Swedish: Pippi Långstrump

an optimistic, fanciful, etc. girl — see Pollyanna