English
hoar
Hoar comes from Middle English hor ‘Grey, greyish, grey-white’, from Proto-West Germanic *hair ‘gray, gray-haired’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- ‘grey, dark’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ḱeh₃-1‘grey, dark’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hairaz1‘grey’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hair1‘gray, gray-haired’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150hār1‘hoar, hoary, grey, old’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hor1‘Grey, greyish, grey-white’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590hoar1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English hoar
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto XII: “So forth they rowèd; and that ferryman / With…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)ḱeh₃-Wiktionary, English hoar‘grey, dark’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hairazWiktionary, English hoar‘grey’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hairWiktionary, English hoar‘gray, gray-haired’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150hārWiktionary, English hoar‘hoar, hoary, grey, old’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500horWiktionary, English hoar‘Grey, greyish, grey-white’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590hoarWiktionary, English hoar. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto XII: “So forth they rowèd; and that ferryman / With…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- ‘grey, dark’
scene, shame, shadow, shade, scenario, obscure, squirrel, scenic, scotia, skene, 31 more
through Old English hār ‘hoar, hoary, grey, old’
Today it means
noun A white or greyish-white colour.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “hoar”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- / hoar