hoary

Hoary is an English adjective with several related senses. It most commonly describes something gray or white with age, such as hair that has turned gray or white, or a person described as hoary-headed. It can also describe surfaces coated with hoarfrost, or frost in a literary sense, though in modern usage hoarfrost is the more exact term for frost crystals on plants and surfaces. In addition, hoary carries a figurative sense meaning ancient, venerable, or old-fashioned, sometimes with a slightly pejorative nuance as in “a hoary old trick” or “a hoary myth.”

The word derives from the noun hoar, associated with whiteness and frost, and thus by extension with aging and venerable appearance. It has been used in English since the Middle Ages and appears in poetry and descriptive prose to evoke frost, age, or antiquity.

In practice, “hoary” is encountered in biology and botany in the form of common names or descriptive phrases, such as the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), named for its pale fur, and various “hoary” plant species that bear white-haired or woolly coats. The term remains chiefly literary or descriptive, and is less common in everyday speech about living people, where “aged” or “gray-haired” is more typical.

Hoary is sometimes confused with hoarfrost; while related through the same root sense of whiteness, hoarfrost refers specifically to frost crystals, whereas hoary is an adjective describing color, texture, or age.