A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1469 entries
hoary
Hoary means grayish white, and in natural history it specifically means covered with a fine coat of short white hairs, so the surface looks frosted. It is all over the species lists: hoary bat, hoary marmot, hoary cress, hoary plantain, hoary redpoll. In every case, the animal or plant looks as though it has been dusted.
Etymology
The word is Old English for gray with age, and it is the same word as the hoar in hoar frost. That connection runs the way you would expect: the frost is named for looking like an old man’s hair rather than the other way around. The sense of something ancient, as in a hoary old joke, comes from the same association with age.
Notes
The hoary bat is the most widespread bat in the Americas and one of very few that migrate long distances rather than hibernating, and the white-tipped fur that gives it the name also gives it a frosted appearance in a spotlight. In plants, the white hairs are usually a water-saving or sun-shading structure, so a hoary plant is often a dry-country one.