hair

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   any of the cylindrical filaments characteristically growing from the epidermis of a mammal

   there is a hair in my soup

2. 2
   noun

   a very small distance or space

   they escaped by a hair's-breadth

3. 3
   noun

   A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.

   And draweth new delights with hoary hairs.

4. 4
   noun

   Specifically, the collection of hairs on the top and sides of the human head, growing from the scalp.

   In the western world, women usually have long hair while men usually have short hair.

5. 5
   noun

   A cellular outgrowth of the epidermis, consisting of one or of several cells, whether pointed, hooked, knobbed, or stellated.

   Internal hairs occur in the flower stalk of the yellow frog lily (Nuphar).

6. 6
   noun

   Any slender, flexible outgrowth, filament, or fiber growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.

   (uncountable, by extension) The collection or mass of such outgrowths, filaments, or fibers growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.

7. 7
   noun

   Any very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth.

   Just a little louder please—turn that knob a hair to the right.

8. 8
   noun

   Complexity; difficulty; the quality of being hairy.

   January 2014, Barack Obama, quoted in "Going the Distance" by David Remnick, in The New Yorker Having said all that, those who argue that legalizing marijuana is a panacea and it solves all these social problems I think are probably overstating the case. There is a lot of hair on that policy.

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”), borrow…