hair

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /heə/, US /her/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English her, inherited from Old English hǣr, also hēr,^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *hēran,^[2] the source also of Old Saxon and Old High German hār, Old Norse hár, Old Frisian hēr, and Dutch and German haar.^[2][3][5] Etymonline suggests PIE Proto-Indo-European *ghers- (“to bristle, stand out”), comparing Lithuanian šerys (“bristle”),^[2][6] but Hoad calls the Germanic word of unknown origin.^[7] The spelling and pronunciation were influenced by Old Norse hár and by Middle English haire “haircloth”,^[2][7] from Old French haire, of Frankish origin.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A single hair: about 800;^[8] the aggregate of hairs on the head or body from about 1000.^[8] Barnhart dates the Old English hēr to about 800 and hǣr to about 1000.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Figurative uses, for the rays of the sun or the tail of a comet, are from 1594,^[8] and the outgrowths of plants from 1631.^[8] Hair of the dog (that bit you), a drink as a remedy for a hangover, is in English from the 1540s and goes back to Pliny.^[2] Not to turn a hair was first used, in the early 19th century, of horses that did not sweat.^[9] To let one's hair down, “to become familiar”, is first recorded in 1850,^[2] and hair-dye is from 1803.^[2] A bad hair day is from the 1980s.^[9] The verb, now rare, was used from 1539.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 800 – a single hair.^[8]
• c. 1000 – the hair of the head.^[8]
• 1540s – hair of the dog.^[2]
• 1594 – figurative uses.^[8]
• 1631 – plant hairs.^[8]
• 1803 – hair-dye.^[2]
• 1850 – let one's hair down.^[2]
• 1980s – bad hair day.^[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. One of the fine threadlike strands that grow from the skin of mammals.
2. A mass of such strands, as on a person's head or an animal's coat.
3. A fine threadlike growth on a plant.
4. A very small amount or distance: won by a hair.

Word family

• hairless
• hairlessness
• hairlike
• fair-haired
• hair-raising
• white-haired
• wirehaired

Related words

• haircloth
• horror
• hairy

Usage notes

Hoad notes that the present spelling and pronunciation are abnormal: the expected form would be here or hear.^[7] In Scots hair is also a name for the last handful of corn cut at harvest.^[10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)