the.com/hairpin
A tiny metal U holding up hairstyles, marriages, and the occasional improvised lockpick.
means A small U-shaped pin used to hold hair in place, or by extension a very sharp, doubled-back bend in a road resembling that shape.
from A plain English compound, exactly what it says: 'hair' (Old English hǣr) plus 'pin' (Old English pinn, a peg or fastener), joined in the 16th–17th centuries for the bent fastener that tames a coiffure. The road sense — the 'hairpin bend' or 'hairpin turn' — came much later, when someone driving a mountain pass looked at that tight U and saw exactly the thing keeping their hair up.
- ancient tool
- Used for elaborate hairstyles over 4,000 years ago
- road namesake
- Sharp mountain switchbacks borrow its bent shape
- lockpicking myth
- Picking locks with one is harder than movies suggest
- physics demo
- Bobby pins illustrate spring tension and elastic force
stelvio pass — 48 hairpin turns in the italian alps, one of europe's most famous mountain roads
trollstigen — 11 hairpin turns on a norwegian mountain road completed in 1936
monaco grand prix — formula 1 race featuring the fairmont hairpin, one of the tightest corners in racing