hair

From Middle English her, heer, hær, from Old English hǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *hār, from Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hier (“hair”), West Frisian hier (“hair”), Dutch haar (“hair”), German Low German Haar (“hair”), German Haar (“hair”), Swedish, Danish and Norwegian hår (“hair”), Icelandic hár (“hair”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English cheveler, chevelere (“hair”), borrowed from Old French chevelëure (“hair, head-hair, coiffure, wig”).

The modern spelling with ai is not a regular representation of the vowel developed from Middle English. Rather, it is from Middle English here (haircloth) influenced by Old French haire.

• (UK) enPR: hâr, IPA^(key): /hɛə/, /hɛː/

• Audio (RP)

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• Audio

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• (US, Canada, Ireland) IPA^(key): /hɛ(ə)ɹ/, [hɛɚ]

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /heː/
  • (Victoria) IPA^(key): /hɛːə/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): [hiə]
• Homophone: hare
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• (New Zealand) Homophones: here (cheer–chair merger), air, heir (cheer–chair merger and H-dropping)

hair (countable and uncountable, plural hairs) (but usually in singular)

1. (countable) A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Iune. Ægloga Sexta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC; republished as The Shepheardes Calender […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], 1586, →OCLC:

     And draweth new delights with hoary hairs.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 28, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 135:

     Threading its way out from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his tawny scorched face and neck, till it disappeared in his clothing, you saw a slender rod-like mark, lividly whitish.

2. (uncountable) The collection or mass of such growths growing from the skin of humans and animals, and forming a covering for a part of the head or for any part or the whole body.

   In the western world, women usually have long hair while men usually have short hair.

   • 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:

     Her abundant hair, of a dark and glossy brown, was neatly plaited and coiled above an ivory column that rose straight from a pair of gently sloping shoulders, clearly outlined beneath the light muslin frock that covered them.

3. (zoology, countable) A slender outgrowth from the chitinous cuticle of insects, spiders, crustaceans, and other invertebrates. Such hairs are totally unlike those of vertebrates in structure, composition, and mode of growth.
4. (botany, countable) A cellular outgrowth of the epidermis, consisting of one or of several cells, whether pointed, hooked, knobbed, or stellated.

   Internal hairs occur in the flower stalk of the yellow frog lily (Nuphar).

5. (countable) Any slender, flexible outgrowth, filament, or fiber growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.

   (uncountable, by extension) The collection or mass of such outgrowths, filaments, or fibers growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.

6. (countable, engineering, firearms) A locking spring or other safety device in the lock of a rifle, etc., capable of being released by a slight pressure on a hair-trigger.
7. (obsolete) (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Haircloth; a hair shirt.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “ij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XV:

     Thenne vpon the morne whanne the good man had songe his masse / thenne they buryed the dede man / Thenne syr launcelot sayd / fader what shalle I do / Now sayd the good man / I requyre yow take this hayre that was this holy mans and putte it nexte thy skynne / and it shalle preuaylle the gretely

     Then in the morning when the priest had sung mass / then they buried the dead man/ then Sir Lancelot said/ Father what shall I do / Now said the priest / I require you to take this hair that was this saint's and put it on your scalp / and it shall serve you greatly

8. (countable) Any very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth.

   Just a little louder please—turn that knob a hair to the right.

9. (slang, uncountable) Complexity; difficulty; the quality of being hairy.
   • January 2014, Barack Obama, quoted in "Going the Distance" by David Remnick, in The New Yorker

     Having said all that, those who argue that legalizing marijuana is a panacea and it solves all these social problems I think are probably overstating the case. There is a lot of hair on that policy.

• The word hair is usually used without an article in singular number when it refers to all the hairs on one's head in general. But if it refers to more than one hair, a few hairs, then it takes the plural form with an article and needs a plural verb.

  George has (-) brown hair, but I found a hair on the sofa and suspect he's getting some gray hairs.

  George's hair is brown, but one hair I found was grey, so I think there are probably more grey hairs on his head as well.

• depilate, depilation, depilator, depilatory
• epilate, epilation, epilator, epilatory

hair (third-person singular simple present hairs, present participle hairing, simple past and past participle haired)

1. (transitive) To remove the hair from.
   • 1808, The Repertory of Patent Inventions, page 90:

     Now know ye, that in compliance with the said proviso, we the said John Cant and John Millar do hereby declare that our said invention of a new method of tanning leather is described in the manner following : that our method of preparing hides and skins by liming, hairing, fleshing, and baiting, is the same as that in use by the most experienced tanners; that is to say: All leather that is to be dressed or curried, we use the operation of what tanners call baiting, for this reason; that the leather when curried should carry a sufficient quantity of oil, and dry a good colour.

   • 1825, American Mechanics' Magazine - Volume 2, page 71:

     By his method raw hides, after hairing and baiting, are converted into leather in less than thirty hours.

   • 1971, Reuben King, Virginia S. Wood, Ralph V. Wood, The Reuben King Journal, 1800-1806, page 49:

     I took 25 hides out of the Lime with Stephens help I haired them and fleshed them

2. (intransitive) To grow hair (where there was a bald spot).
   • 1863, Yankee-notions - Volume 12, page 312:

     He has haired up and healed over.

   • 1887, National Stockman and Farmer - Volume 11, page 7:

     It has haired over nicely. There are no bad results from it in any way whatever that I can detect.

   • 1992, Hugh Ruppersburg, Georgia Voices: Fiction, page 492:

     The bald patch on his hip was hairing over and he no longer limped.

3. (transitive) To cause to have or bear hair; to provide with hair
   • 1937, Dyestuffs - Volume 35, Issue 1, page 1:

     THE following classes of fiber are employed for hairing dolls : human hair, mohair, cross-bred wool, horsehair, hog-bristle, unspun cotton. Human hair is only used for hairing dolls of an extremely expensive class.

   • 2014, Lee Karr, Greg Nicotero, The Making of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead:

     So they did three different sculptures and then ran the masks and painted them, haired them, and sent them out to us.

   • 2017, Andy Adams, Wells Brothers: The Young Cattle Kings:

     The winter had haired them like llamas, the sleet had worked no hardship, as a horse paws to the grass, and any concern for the outside saddle stock was needless.

4. To string the bow for a violin.
   • 1896, Henry Saint-George, The Bow, Its History, Manufacture & Use, page 96:

     The bow is now haired, and all that remains to make it ready for use is to rosin it.

   • 1969, John Alfred Bolander, Violin bow making, page 105:

     The tools used for hairing a bow by various reparimen can be unlimited in their selection. A bowmaker has a different attitude toward hairing than a repairman and this I believe reflects the type of the finished job that is done.

   • 2015, Michael J. Pagliaro, The String Instrument Owner's Handbook, page 108:

     To hair a bow, a hank of horse hair (A) is selected and combed so that all hairs are parallel to each other.

• Hari, Hira, Ihar, Riha, riah

• IPA^(key): /haɾʲ/

hair

1. h-prothesized form of air

hair

1. h-prothesized form of air

hair (plural haires)

1. Alternative form of her (“hair”)

hair (plural haires or hairen)

1. Alternative form of here (“haircloth”)

hair

1. Alternative form of hor (“hoar”)

hair

1. Alternative form of heir (“heir”)

• hadir, haḍir, haïr

From Frankish *hattjan.

hair

1. to hate

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. First person singular present hez and present subjunctives are inherited from Frankish with regular sound changes of *-ttj- > -z/c-. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

• haïne

• Middle French: haïr
  • French: haïr
• Norman: haï

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish خیر (hayır), from Arabic خَيْر (ḵayr, “good, well, wellbeing”).

hair n (plural hairuri)

1. share
2. luck