Fictional Characters dictionary
Rapunzel
or rapunzel [ruh-puhnz-uh l]
Who is聽Rapunzel?
Rapunzel is a German fairy tale about a young woman named 搁补辫耻苍锄别濒听with impossibly long hair and who lives alone in a tower, held captive by a witch.
It鈥檚 also the German name of a vegetable commonly used in salads.
Related words:
- Brothers Grimm
- Disney princess
- ever after
- lamb鈥檚 lettuce
- long hair don’t care
Where does Rapunzel come from?

Originating from an old oral tradition, the story of Rapunzel was published in Friedrich Schultz鈥檚聽Kleine Romane in 1790, then more famously in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm鈥檚 1812 collection, Children鈥檚 and Household Tales.
Story time:
At the beginning of the fairy tale, Rapunzel鈥檚 mother has major pregnancy cravings for a vegetable, called rapunzel, that she happens to see in the neighbor鈥檚 garden. She starts to feel ill from wanting it so badly, so her husband breaks into the garden to steal it. The neighbor, a witch, catches him. The two make a deal that he can have some rapunzel in exchange for the baby once it鈥檚 born. When the baby arrives, the witch takes her away and names her after that vegetable the mother wanted so badly: Rapunzel.
Rapunzel (the girl) grows up in a remote tower, which has neither a staircase nor ladder so she can鈥檛 get away. The witch (who鈥檚 a kind of mother figure for her) visits the tower regularly and calls out, 鈥Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair,鈥 at which Rapunzel聽throws down her ridiculously long hair for the witch to climb up like a rope.
One day, a prince comes across the tower, hears the witch say the words, and sees her climb up. After the witch leaves, he tries it himself and meets Rapunzel. The two fall in love and he starts visiting her regularly. The witch eventually catches on, cuts off Rapunzel鈥檚 hair, and kicks her out of the tower to fend for herself. She uses the severed hair-rope to catch the prince the next time he visits, then throws him out of the tower (literally). Luckily, he survives, Rapunzel finds him, and they live happily ever after.
So, what exactly is this magical vegetable? An early form of the story that the Brothers Grimm drew from was Italian poet Giambattista Basile鈥檚 1630s 鈥淧etrosinella.鈥 The herb in that version is parsley. Some translations of the Grimms鈥 story have rapunzel as rampion, which is a European bellflower that鈥檚 commonly used in salad, but the German word rapunzel refers to lamb鈥檚 lettuce.
In any case, the question remains: How good does a salad need to be to trade your firstborn child for it?
In late 2010, Disney released a film adaptation of Rapunzel, called Tangled. While the film didn鈥檛 perfectly follow the original German tale (which was pretty dark TBH), it did star a character with abnormally long hair, named Rapunzel, spark renewed interest in Rapunzel, and added the character to the pantheon of Disney princesses.
Examples of Rapunzel
Who uses Rapunzel?
Unless you鈥檙e a German-speaking gardener,聽Rapunzel is most commonly used to refer to either the fairy tale, its title character, or any number of stage, film, or book adaptations.
Because the character Rapunzel鈥檚 defining feature was her incredibly long hair, the name has also been used for hair products as well as other fairy-tale-themed beauty products. Women with very long hair may also be called real-life聽Rapunzels.
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In English, it’s far less common to refer to lamb鈥檚 lettuce as 谤补辫耻苍锄别濒听… or to a bropunzel (come on, that’s amazing!).
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of Rapunzel like most terms we define on 亚洲网紅露点, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of Rapunzel that will help our users expand their word mastery.