haar

Definition

Thick, cold, wet fog along the northeastern coast of Northern England and Scotland.

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”).

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[…]"