hirsute

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin hirsūtus (“rough, shaggy, bristly”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} figuratively "rude, unpolished".^[3] The OED derives the adjective from *hirsus, a by-form of hirtus (“rough, shaggy”),^[2] and Barnhart from a lost noun meaning bristle, ultimately from the root Proto-Indo-European *ĝher-.^[5] Merriam-Webster, Klein and Skeat also relate it to horreō (“to bristle, stand on end”), the source of horror and horrid,^[7][6][8] though Etymonline and Barnhart call this link only possible.^[3][9] Weekley also wondered about hircus (“goat”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Having rough or shaggy hair: 1621, in R. Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, which also has the transferred sense "rough, untrimmed".^[2][5][7]

Semantic evolution

A scientific use, covered with long and rather stiff hairs, follows in 1626, in Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum,^[2] and Johnson (1755) quoted Bacon's bulbous, fibrous, and hirsute roots under "rough; rugged".^[11] A figurative use for rough, unpolished manners or style is recorded from 1658,^[2] echoing the figurative sense of the Latin adjective.^[3] Byron used it in Don Juan (1823) for what belongs to or consists of hair.^[2] In ordinary current use it describes a person with a lot of hair,^[12][4] and the Shorter Oxford's quotation from A. S. Byatt shows it applied to a hairy man.^[13]

Timeline

• 1621 – having rough or shaggy hair; rough, untrimmed.^[2][7]
• 1626 – in botany and zoology, covered with long, stiffish hairs.^[2]
• 1658 – of manners or style, rough, unpolished.^[2]
• 1823 – of or consisting of hair.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Covered with hair; hairy or shaggy: a hirsute young sailor.^{[4][12][7][2]}
2. Of a person, having long, thick or untrimmed hair.^[12]
3. (biology) Covered with long or stiff hairs.^{[4][12][7][2]}
4. Of, relating to or consisting of hair.^[7][2]
5. Rough or unpolished in manner or style.^[2]

Word family

• hirsuteness
• hirsutism
• subhirsute

Related words

• hirtellous
• horror
• horrid
• hispid
• hearse

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press