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cathair en · NOUN · etymology 1

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *kattuz Proto-West Germanic *kattu Old English catt Middle English cat English cat Proto-Germanic *hērą Proto-West Germanic *hār Old English hǣr Middle English her English hair English cathair From cat + hair.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) The hair of a cat.
   • The conscientious Mrs. Fulgrove was driving away as he pulled into the barnyard, and he waved to her; the woman's scowl indicated that she had worked overtime because of the vast amount of cathair everywhere. 1993, Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Wasn't There:
   • How can you tell a cat owner? all the little claw marks on their back...Or by the cathair that sticks to their suit. 1993, Allen Warfield, Al Brooks, Effective Telemarketing: How to Sell Over the Telephone, page 111:
   • Meditate on the steady drone and the rocking of the back and forth vacuum dance you do as you suck up the cathair, the ashes, the seeds, the stray leaves. 2000, Tamaqua: Volume Seven Issue One, page 75:
   • Cat likes to brush against it and sun on the deck chair, the cushion is a mat of gray cathair. 2000, Nimrod International Journal - Volume 44, page 128:
2. (countable) A single hair of a cat.
   • The closed-door policy, he liked to explain, kept the cats out of his hair and the cathairs out of his typewriter. 1994, Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Blew the Whistle, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 81:
   • A pimpled chin, dark with cathairs, a mouthful of irregular teeth, were visible below helmet and goggles. 1968, Benedict Kiely, Dogs Enjoy the Morning, Penguin Books, published 1971, page 18:
   • I'm sure they use the same stuff that sticks cathairs to clothes in paint. It's just as difficult to remove... […] [T]he first law of cathairs is they get everywhere, including where it's physically impossible, etc. 2001 May 29, Adrian Vickers, “It's a Dulux day”, in uk.misc (Usenet), archived from the original on 10 Aug 2025:

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
cathairs	Number=Plur		lexicographic

cathair en · NOUN · etymology 2

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish cathair.

Meanings

1. An ancient Irish fortification of stone or earthwork.
   • Several cathairs which we have examined are not circular in plan, but appear to have been formed to suit the contour of the eminence upon which they stand; and others are of an oval form. 1848, William F[rederick] Wakeman, “Raths or Duns”, in Archæologia Hibernica. A Hand-book of Irish Antiquities, Pagan and Christian: Especially of Such as Are Easy of Access from the Irish Metropolis., Dublin: James MᶜGlashan, […]. William S. Orr & Co. […] London, part I (Pagan Antiquities), page 47:
   • There were probably other cathairs and duns on the Aran Islands which were not as sturdily built or not as well preserved as those that survived. 1977, “The Dúns of Aran”, in A World of Stone: Life, Folklore and Legends of the Aran Islands, O’Brien Educational, published 1980, →ISBN, page 28:
   • ‘On this island there are three cyclopean cathairs but their stones have been nearly all removed to build the modern little houses which are nearly in as rude a style as the Cahirs ever were.[…]’ 1992, Theresa McDonald, Achill: 5000 B.C. to 1900 A.D.: Archaeology, History, Folklore, →ISBN, page 128:

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
cathairs	Number=Plur		lexicographic