haircloth

Noun

haircloth (countable and uncountable, plural haircloths)

1. A coarse cloth made of the mane or tail hairs of a horse, associated with furniture upholstery, and with uncomfortable clothing worn by people practising religious asceticism.
   • And amongst these, there are some so rigidly Religious, that their upper Garment is hair-Cloth, their inner of the finest Linnen; and on the contrary, others wear Linnen without, and hair next their skins:1668, Desiderius Erasmus, translated by John Wilson, The Praise of Folly, page 108
   • On that day, the Mufti, and other ecclesiastical servants, cloathed with penitential garments of hair-cloth, with down-cast eyes, beards uncombed, and all in tears, shall repair first to the public places, and afterwards to the mosques,1783, Thomas Holcroft, The Family Picture, volume 2, pages 43-44

   Synonyms:

   horsehair