maidenhair

plural maidenhairs · alternative maiden-hair

1. poeticuncountableA woman's pubic hair.

   He fingered shreds of hair, her maidenhair, her mermaid's, into the bowl

   1922, James Joyce, Ulysses

   4 more examples

   His fingers tore at her maidenhair. Gasping, she recoiled for long enough to allow him entry.

   1979, Georgianna Bell, Passionate Jade, page 326

   Some said they'd seen her over by Death's-Door, with bloodstains on her dress, which was so white and transparent they were seized with shame and fear at the faint beauty of her breasts and the eternal modesty of her maidenhair.

   1987, Pierre Clitandre, Cathedral of the August Heat, page 152

   She grabbed at her maidenhair as the garment eluded her frantic grasp and formed a puddle of cloth at her feet.

   1989, Robert Solotaroff, Bernard Malamud: A Study of the Short Fiction, page 116

   She turns and her small breasts are firm in the fading light, the flower of her navel, the darkening delta of her maidenhair and her thighs rising out of the water, the water tiny golden gifts against her skin

   2013, John F. Deane, Snow Falling on Chestnut Hill: New and Selected Poems

2. countableuncountableEither of two species of genus Adiantum of fern with delicate, hair-like stalks, especially Adiantum capillus-veneris.

   Our common Maidenhair does from a number of hard black fibres, send forth a great many blacking shining brittle stalks, hardly a span long [...].

   1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society, published 2007, page 178

   1 more example

   Among herbs that have traditionally been considered to possess aphrodisiac virtue are, maidenhair, navelwort, anemone, wild poppy, valerian, cyclamen, male fern, pansy, periwinkle.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 115

   Synonyms: maidenhair fern

3. CanadaUScountableregionaluncountableEither of two ericaceous plants: creeping snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula) or checkerberry (G. procumbens).