Spot the Frippet: something hoary.

 Something hoary is covered in frost - or perhaps it just looks as if it's covered in frost - or perhaps it just looks as if it's old enough to look as if it's covered in frost.

Complicated, isn't it?

Let's start with some hoar frost:

photo by Jim Hammer

so beautiful!

And then here are some things which look as if they are covered in frost:

hoary marmot, photo by Steven Pavlov

hoary bat, photo by Paul Cryan, USA

There are hoary people, too:

lady from Laos. Photo by Basile Morin

Sometimes things can be hoary just because they're old. Like jokes, for instance. This is a joke from a writing box full of odds and ends I bought when I was a teenager. It's about the Prime Minister of the day.

What happened when the Duke of Wellington put his watch in the sea?

It got wet.

No, it's all right. 

I'll go away, now...

Spot the Frippet: something hoary. The Old English form of this word was hār. The related Old Slavonic word sêrû means grey.