Haar
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Thick, cold, wet fog along the northeastern coast of Northern England and Scotland. Northern-England, Scotland, countable, especially, uncountable
"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."
- 2 A wind, especially one from the east, which blows in this fog. Scotland, countable, especially, uncountable
"[…] 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[…]"
- 1 A municipality near Munich, Germany.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"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."
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”).
More for "haar"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.