Etymologically
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hair

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 14:47. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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
  • 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)