hair
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: hâr
ipa: /hɛə/
ipa: /hɛ(ə)ɹ/
ipa: [hɛɚ]
ipa: /heː/
note: Victoria
ipa: /hɛːə/
note: without the cheer–chair merger
ipa: /heə/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
ipa: /hiə/
ipa: /heɹ/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /hɜː(ɹ)/
homophone: hare
homophone: air
homophone: heir (h-dropping)
homophone: here (cheer–chair merger)
homophone: her (fair–fur merger)
rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
Forms: form: hairs
form: hairing
form: haired
form: haired
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1808, The Repertory of Patent Inventions, page 90:
text: By his method raw hides, after hairing and baiting, are converted into leather in less than thirty hours.
ref: 1825, American Mechanics' Magazine - Volume 2, page 71:
text: I took 25 hides out of the Lime with Stephens help I haired them and fleshed them
ref: 1971, Reuben King, Virginia S. Wood, Ralph V. Wood, The Reuben King Journal, 1800-1806, page 49:
glosses: To remove the hair from.
examples: text: He has haired up and healed over.
ref: 1863, Yankee-notions - Volume 12, page 312:
text: It has haired over nicely. There are no bad results from it in any way whatever that I can detect.
ref: 1887, National Stockman and Farmer - Volume 11, page 7:
text: The bald patch on his hip was hairing over and he no longer limped.
ref: 1992, Hugh Ruppersburg, Georgia Voices: Fiction, page 492:
glosses: To grow hair (where there was a bald spot).
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1937, Dyestuffs - Volume 35, Issue 1, page 1:
text: So they did three different sculptures and then ran the masks and painted them, haired them, and sent them out to us.
ref: 2014, Lee Karr, Greg Nicotero, The Making of George A. Romero's Day of the Dead:
text: 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.
ref: 2017, Andy Adams, Wells Brothers: The Young Cattle Kings:
glosses: To cause to have or bear hair; to provide with hair
examples: text: The bow is now haired, and all that remains to make it ready for use is to rosin it.
ref: 1896, Henry Saint-George, The Bow, Its History, Manufacture & Use, page 96:
text: 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.
ref: 1969, John Alfred Bolander, Violin bow making, page 105:
text: To hair a bow, a hank of horse hair (A) is selected and combed so that all hairs are parallel to each other.
ref: 2015, Michael J. Pagliaro, The String Instrument Owner's Handbook, page 108:
glosses: To string the bow for a violin.