Crine

/kraɪn/ noun

Definition

Hair or a hair-like structure; archaic or poetic term for the hair on a person's head or an animal's mane.

Etymology

From Latin 'crinis,' meaning hair. Used in Middle English and early modern English poetry, particularly in archaic or elevated language, though largely obsolete in contemporary usage.

Kelly Says

In Renaissance poetry, 'crine' appears frequently in descriptions of beauty—'her golden crine' meaning her golden hair—because poets loved the Latin-derived terms that sounded more elegant than plain 'hair,' creating a whole vocabulary layer just for poetic description.

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