A Grateful Dead fan who travels to follow the band; a person who travels without paying; or a tree stump or log in water.
Compound of 'dead' + 'head.' The fan sense emerged in the 1960s-70s (fans seemed obsessed with following a 'dead' band name). The transportation sense means riding without a ticket (your 'head' traveling for free). The nautical sense refers to submerged wood hazards.
Deadheads were America's most famous concert followers, but they weren't invented by the Grateful Dead—the term already meant freeloaders and river hazards. They just claimed it as their own, showing how subcultures recycle and rebrand language.
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