haar
/hɑɹ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.40 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Thick, cold, wet fog along the northeastern coast of Northern England and Scotland.
Countable; Uncountable
name
Example Sentences
- "The traffic noise used to be constant, at times as thick as the haar, the sea fog that sometimes rolls in here from the North Sea."
- "[…] westerly haar, which wraps everything up in white wool, and blots out sea and sky, and chokes the depressed wayfarer-not to speak of the penetrating chill which even in June goes down into the marrow of your bones, and makes the[…]"
- "[An] easterly haar was blowing in off the sea, the cold wind bringing with it a thick fog that crawled under the collar and clung to the skin. Ahead, the road disappeared as the fog hid anything on either side of the hedges save for the[…]"
Etymology
Attested since the late 17th century, alongside Scots haar (“cold easterly wind; misty wind; cold fog or mist”). Perhaps ultimately from Middle Dutch hare (“cold wind”) or a related Low German word; compare Dutch harig (“windy; foggy, misty”), Saterland Frisian harig (“misty”). Alternatively, perhaps simply a northern English or Scottish variant of hoar, or a borrowing of Old Norse hárr (“hoary”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /hɑɹ/
- British English: /hɑː(ɹ)/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frank-ter Haar syndrome
Haar matrix
Haar sequence
Haar system
Haar transform
Haar wavelet
ter Haar syndrome
Frequently Paired Words
Frank-ter Haar syndrome
Haar matrix
Haar sequence
Haar system
Haar transform
Haar wavelet
ter Haar syndrome