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Hair

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hair¹

  • /ˈhɛə/ UK
  • [ˈhɛə̯] UK
  • [ˈhɛː] UK
  • /ˈhɛː/ British, Southern, Standard
  • [ˈhɛː] British, Southern, Standard
  • /ˈheː/ Australia
  • [ˈheː] Australia
  • [ˈheə̯] Australia, Western
  • /ˈheə/
  • [ˈhe̝ə̯]
  • /ˈhiə/
  • [ˈhiə̯]
  • /ˈhɛː/ General South African
  • [ˈhɛː] General South African
  • /ˈhɜː(ɹ)/
  • [ˈhɜː(ɹ)]
  • /ˈhɛɚ/ Canada, US
  • [ˈhɛɚ] ~ [ˈhɛɹ̩] Canada, US
  • /ˈheɾ/ Scotland
  • [ˈheːɾ] Scotland

Sounds like hare, air, heir (h-dropping), here (cheer–chair merger), her (fair–fur merger) · Rhymes with -ɛə(ɹ)

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *hērą

Proto-West Germanic *hār

Old English hǣr

Middle English her

English hair

From Middle English her, heer, hær, from Old English hǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *hār, from Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”), from Proto-Indo-European *kes- (“to scrape, comb”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hier, Híer (“hair”), West Frisian hier (“hair”), Cimbrian haar, har (“hair”), Dutch haar (“hair”), German and Low German Haar (“hair”), Luxembourgish Hoer (“hair”), Mòcheno hor (“hair”), Yiddish האָר (hor, “hair”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hår (“hair”), Faroese and 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.

noun hairs

  1. countable, singular, usually A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals. And draweth new delights with hoary hairs.
  2. singular, uncountable, usually The collection or mass of such growths growing from the skin of humans and animals, and forming a covering for any part or the whole body.
  3. singular, uncountable, usually Specifically, the collection of hairs on the top and sides of the human head, growing from the scalp. In the western world, women usually have long hair while men usually have short hair.
  4. countable, singular, usually 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.
  5. countable, singular, usually 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).
  6. countable, singular, usually 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.
  7. countable, singular, usually 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.
  8. countable, singular, usually Any very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth. Just a little louder please—turn that knob a hair to the right.
  9. singular, slang, uncountable, usually 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.

verb hairs · hairing · haired

  1. singular, transitive, usually To remove the hair from. 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
  2. intransitive, singular, usually To grow hair (where there was a bald spot). He has haired up and healed over.
  3. singular, transitive, usually To cause to have or bear hair; to provide with hair 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.
  4. singular, usually To string the bow for a violin. The bow is now haired, and all that remains to make it ready for use is to rosin it.

Hair²

Where it comes from

* As a Scottish Gaelic and Irish surname, from ó héir (“descendant of Ír”), a personal name related to Old Irish sír (“long-lasting”), similar to Hare, O'Hare, Haire.

* As an English surname, from the noun hair.

* As a Scottish surname, variant of Ayre, Ayer.

* As a Dutch and German surname, Americanized from Haar, from haar (“sandy ridge”) (from Proto-Germanic *harugaz) and from the adjective Haar (“hair”).

proper noun Hairs

  1. A surname.

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