maidenhair

From maiden +‎ hair.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪdənhɛː/

maidenhair (plural maidenhairs)

1. (uncountable) a woman's pubic hair
2. Either of two species of fern with delicate, hair-like stalks, especially Adiantum capillus-veneris
   • 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society 2007, p. 178:

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

3. Designating various types of moss or flowering plants.
   • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA 2003, p. 318:

     The ‘maidenhair’ in maidenhair moss, for instance, does not refer to the hair on the maiden's head.

4. (Canada, US, now regional) Either of two ericaceous plants, the creeping snowberry or the checkerberry.

• (fern): maidenhair fern

• maidenhair tree