hirsute

[ hur-soot, hur-soot ]

adjective

1. hairy; shaggy.

   Synonyms: unshaved, furry, woolly, bushy, bearded, pilose

2. Botany, Zoology. covered with long, rather stiff hairs.
3. of, relating to, or characteristic of hair.

hirsute

/ ˈhɜːsjuːt /

adjective

1. covered with hair
2. (of plants or their parts) covered with long but not stiff hairs
3. (of a person) having long, thick, or untrimmed hair

Derived Forms

• ˈhirsuteness, noun

Other Words From

• hirsute·ness noun
• sub·hirsute adjective
• sub·hirsute·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of hirsute¹

1615–25; < Latin hirsūtus rough, shaggy, bristly; akin to horrid

Word History and Origins

Origin of hirsute¹

C17: from Latin hirsūtus shaggy; related to Latin horrēre to bristle, hirtus hairy; see horrid

Example Sentences

“Hey, what did I tell you,” he said to a husky, hirsute man walking in shirtless.

From Los Angeles Times

Spokesman and prominent letter writer Keith Flett says the group is "continuing to review Prince William's latest beard and assessing if it is contributing to a positive image of the hirsute in the public eye".

From BBC

The hyper-compound words of the popular German tongue twister about Barbara, her “bombastic” rhubarb cake and her hirsute customers shot to inexplicable and extreme popularity this spring, a few months after a pair of comedic musical content creators from Berlin posted a rap version late last year.

From New York Times

Predators and poisonous fungi threaten the unwary, but these hirsute hillocks are mostly a danger to themselves — as the alpha will learn when he seems bent on visiting his lust on a hungry mountain lion.

From New York Times

“So in my classes,” Selegut explains, “I would have a still life of the hirsute burdock root with one Cyclops googly eye, the fractal romanesco with one big and one small googly eye, and a Brussels sprout …” Here, Selengut and I digressed into an excited discussion of how romanesco, the broccoli-and-cauliflower relative with the pointy chartreuse-colored lobes of repeating cosmic patterns, is definitely tripping, and that if you think this one’s unattractive, you definitely need your consciousness altered.

From Seattle Times