shellhead

1 9.9

A person who wears a helmet like Iron Man

noun
/ˈʃɛlˌhɛd/

Slang

: cabeza de casco

Beyond his prominent role across the Marvel Comics line, Shellhead hit the big screen in 2008 as Robert Downey Jr. brought Tony Stark to life in the first "Iron Man" movie.

Examples

Relax, shellhead.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Shellhead trailed the cantankerous clergyman to Scotland, where he introduced himself to Lord Jamie of Glen Travail and uncovered a plot against him.

Blog text (34)
Iron Man, also known as Shellhead, flew through the city to save the day.
Everyone in the comic book store was excited to see Shellhead on the big screen.
When Shellhead appeared at the convention, fans couldn't stop cheering for their hero.

Surface Forms

shellhead singular

shellheads plural

Morphology

shellhead = shell + head (transparent) = shell + head

The meaning 'a person with a shell on the head' (i.e., someone who wears a helmet) is directly derived from 'shell' + '-head', a productive pattern for nicknames.

Etymology

The word shellhead joins shell 'a hard outer cover, like a turtle shell or an egg' and head 'the top part of the body'. It makes the picture of a head inside a hard shell, like a helmet, which is why fans use shellhead as a slang name for Iron Man and others who wear a metal helmet.