hair

Meanings

Noun

• A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.
• The collection or mass of such growths growing from the skin of humans and animals, and forming a covering for a part of the head or for any part or the whole body.
• 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.
• A cellular outgrowth of the epidermis, consisting of one or of several cells, whether pointed, hooked, knobbed, or stellated.
• 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.
• Haircloth; a hair shirt.
• Any very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth.
• complexity; difficulty; quality of being hairy

Verb

• To remove the hair from.
• To grow hair (where there was a bald spot).
• To cause to have or bear hair; to provide with hair
• To string the bow for a violin.

Origin

• From Middle English her, heer, hær, from Old English hǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *hār, from Proto-Germanic *hērą, of uncertain origin. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hier, West Frisian hier, Dutch haar, German Low German Haar, German Haar, Swedish and Norwegian hår, Icelandic hár. Eclipsed non-native Middle English cheveler, chevelere, borrowed from Old French chevelëure.