ˈhare-brain
Also hair-.
[f. hare n. + brain. The spelling hair-brain, suggesting another origin for the compound, is later, though occasional before 1600.]
† 1. One who has a brain like a hare's, or no more brain than a hare; a giddy or reckless person. Obs.
| 1550 Bale Apol. 29 Thys rashe kynde of vowyng..he may wele bequethe to his madmen, hys harebraynes. a 1553 Udall Royster D. i. iv. (Arb.) 27 Ah foolish harebraine, This is not she. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iii. ix. (1651) 105 What a company of hare-brains have done in their rage. a 1670 Hacket Abp. Williams ii. 137 (D.) The hare-brains among us are engaged with them. |
| Comb. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 237 Vndiscretely or harebrainlike, he would nedes..bee reputed..for an Academique. |
2. attrib. or adj. = hare-brained.
| 1566 T. Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewel iv. 109 The most outragious and harebrayne stomaches of the Donatistes. 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 79 For love is measured..not by a haire-braine furie, but by a discreete and moderate ascention. 1588 Fraunce Lawiers Log. Ded. ¶ ¶ ij b, Newfangled, youngheaded, harebrayne boyes. 1660 J. Sharp in Lauderd. Papers (Camden) I. 57 Were the game..to be reacted, ther would be few of those hairbrain men..now found. 1882 Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 6 They also handed on to me a hare-brain humour. 1886 American XII. 309 Hairbrain schemes of economic policy. |
Hence
† ˈharebrainness.
Obs.| 1598 R. Haydocke tr. Lomazzo's Tr. ii. 72 Hare-brainnesse hath ridiculous, furious, and phantasticall motions. |