Where does “horsehair” come from?
Horsehair comes from Middle English horshere, from Middle English her meaning hair, from Old English hǣr, from Anglo-Norman eir, from Proto-Indo-European (s)ker- meaning to cut or scrape.
horsehair (English): The hair of a horse, especially from the mane and...
Definitions
- The hair of a horse, especially from the mane and...
Ancestry of “horsehair”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | hors her | horsehair; A individual horse hair |
| 2 | Middle English | hēr | a hair |
| 3 | Old English | hēr | at this place |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | *hēr | here |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | hē₂r | here, in this place |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 7 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 8 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 9 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 10 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 11 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | gū- | to bend; curve; arch; vault; to bow, bend, arch,... |