haire
.
Searchable Lemmata: hære (OE), here (ME), haire (AF), haira (L), haire (MdE).
Alternate Forms: ear, eare, hare, heare, hair, hairas, hairis, haigre, haier, haire, hayr, hayrs, heier, heiȜre, heir, heire, heren, heres, heyr, heyre, heyres.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1a(n.)
Textile;
cloth made of hair, haircloth; in specific uses, a type of coarse fabric made usually from goat's hair; fabric which was worn in the form of hair shirts for penitential reasons and sometimes for burial. Also, a piece of such cloth. The word was ultimately superseded by the compound term haircloth (q.v.).(ante 900 - circa 1600)
1. Ic soðlice þonne me hefie wæron ic gegyryde me mid hæran & geeadmodude o fæstynne sawle mine & gebed min on bearme minum se forcyrryd: Ego autem dum mihi molesti essent induebam me cilicio et humiliabam in ieiunio animam meam et oratio mea in sinum meum conuertetur.
[DOE PsGlC (Wildhagen) (0483 (34.13))]
2. Ðu gecirdest minne heof on gefeæn me þu tostlite ł curfe mine sęc ł hæran & me begierdest me on blisse: Convertisti planctum meum in gaudium michi conscidisti saccum meum et precinxisti me laetitia.
[DOE PsGlE (Harsley) (0393 (29.12))]
3. Þa aras se cyning of his cynesetle & awearp his deorwurðe reaf: & dyde hæran to his lice & axan uppon his heafod. & bead þæt ælc man swa don sceolde & ægðer ge menn ge ða sucendan cyld & eac þa nytenu: ne onbirigdon nanes þinges binnon þrim dagum.
Biblical/Hagiographic.
[DOE ÆCHom I, 18 (0022 (318.32)) ante 1000]
6. [43] ... ancilia: bouclers, targes, eskus, talevas ... [44] ... ciliciis: gallice forure de here ... galeas: chapeaus, coyfis, heumes
Gloss.
[AND TLL (ii 43-44) ante 1300]
Sex: Male, Female Use: n/a Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: Yes
Body Parts: N/A.
1b(n.)
Furnishing;
in specific uses, a piece of haircloth used as furnishing or utensil: used as a shroud; for drying the malt in kilns; for an awning; for an altar cloth; etc.(ante 1210 - circa 1420 ?)
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
2(n.)
Garment;
in one instance, refers to an ascetic garment made from a different material (in this case, leather).(post 1300 - ante 1425 ?)
Sex: Male Use: Ecclesiastical Ceremonial: No
Body Parts:
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, two words are represented: the native OE hære (West Saxon; Anglian here), a derivation of hær 'hair' (q.v.) > ME here. Anglo-French also possessed haire of the same meaning (in both Old French and Old Norman < Frankish); in both English and French the words go back to a Germanic *harja-. The French word is the source of ME forms such as heire, hairys and these outlasted the native 'here' forms; by the later sixteenth century the word was obsolescent and became assimilated to hair.
WF:
Etym Cog:
References:
