hirsute

From Latin hirsūtus (“shaggy, hairy”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /həːˈsjuːt/, /həːˈsuːt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /hɚˈsut/

• Audio (US):

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  Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -uːt

hirsute (comparative more hirsute, superlative most hirsute)

1. Covered in hair or bristles; hairy.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], chapter 3, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 1, member 2, page 674:

     A third eminent cause of iealousie may be this, when hee that is deformed hirsute and ragged, and very vertuously giuen, will marry some very faire niec piece, or some light huswife, he begins to misdoubt (as well he may) she doth not affect him.

   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , London: William Rawley ; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC, page 157:

     […] there are of Roots, Bulbous Roots, Fibrous Roots, and Hirsute Roots.

   • 1823 August 29, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos IX.—X.—and XI., London: for John Hunt, , →OCLC, canto IX, stanza 53, page 31:

     Juan, I said, was a most beauteous Boy,
     And had retained his boyish look beyond
     The usual hirsute seasons which destroy,
     With beards and whiskers and the like, the fond
     Parisian aspect […]

   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Of the Jew Old-clothes Men”, in London Labour and the London Poor; , volume II (The London Street-folk. Book the Second.), London: [Griffin, Bohn, and Company], →OCLC, page 129, column 2:

     At that period, too, the Jew's long beard was far more distinctive than it is in this hirsute generation.

   • 2008, Desmond Morris, chapter 2, in The Naked Man: A Study of the Male Body, London: Vintage, page 30:

     Despite occasional hirsute rebellions by Cavaliers in the seventeenth century and hippies in the twentieth, the shaggy, long-haired male has remained a rarity […]

• Considerably more formal than everyday hairy.

• hairy

• glabrous

hirsute (plural hirsutes)

1. (rare) Someone or something that is hirsute.
   • 1929 April, James D. Frankel, “Anomalies of the Fetal Ectoderm (Dr. Zimmerman, Vierteljarsschr. f. Zahnheilk. 44:419, No. 3, 1928)”, in The Journal of the American Dental Association, volume 16, number 4, page 759, column 1:

     Virchow is mentioned as having described the “Russian hairy men” the “hirsutes,” who, although their bodies were covered with a thick growth of hair were nevertheless almost entirely devoid of teeth.

   • 1897 May 13, “Run Here, Somebody”, in The Montgomery Advertiser, volume LXVII (old series) / XXXII (new series), number 291, Montgomery, Ala.: The Advertiser Co., →OCLC, page 4, column 2:

     Where’s the sockless hirsutes from the grasshopper-bitten wilds of Kansas?

   • 1960 winter, Margaret M. Lee, “Worth Exploring: The Begonia Family”, in California Garden, volume 51, number 4, San Diego, Calif.: San Diego Floral Association, pages 20–21:

     THE hairy fibrous or hirsute begonias (either term is correct, though the latter is preferred) are not so well known as those already discussed, but they are just as lovely. Their flowering season is mainly in fall and winter when most other plants have finished blooming. They get their name from the hairs on the outside of the flower petals. Leaves and stems may be quite smooth, or moderately to heavily covered with hairs. These hirsutes come in varying heights, from a foot for the dwarf varieties, to well over six feet for the larger ones.

   • 1966 April 3, Art Vinsel, “Gadzooks! Where Did All the Hirsutes Come From?”, in Independent-Press-Telegram, volume 14, number 31, Long Beach, Calif., page eight:

     Gadzooks! Where Did All the Hirsutes Come From? […] ONE DAY a caveman sat scratching his bristly cheeks with a sharp shell. Maybe it was the shell of a razor clam. But at least it took the whiskers off dandily. And pretty soon a little cavegirl wandered by and rubbed the caveman’s smooth cheek fondly. It would have made a great television commercial. We can be pretty certain that within a few days, our boy had learned to scrape just part of that facial stubble-[?], leaving a bit here and there for the special effect it offered. And thus was born pogonotrophy: beard growing if you aren’t up on your Greek.

Borrowed from Latin hirsūtus.

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /iʁ.syt/

• Audio:

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hirsute (plural hirsutes)

1. hairy, bristly, shaggy

• “hirsute”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

hī̆rsūte

1. vocative masculine singular of hī̆rsūtus