heard

Forms

heard (comparative heardra, superlative heardest or heardost)^[1] Also written hard.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hard, from Proto-Germanic *harduz (“hard”).^[1][3] The adjective is found in all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus), Old Norse harðr, Old Frisian herd, Old Saxon hard and Old High German hart.^[4][5][6] It was a u-stem, as the Gothic form shows;^[7] Old High German has it also as a ja-stem (herti), but elsewhere in Northwest Germanic it is inflected as an a-stem, by a change whose details Ringe and Taylor think cannot be recovered.^[7]

Its further origin is disputed.^[4][1] The traditional comparison, which Holthausen follows, is with Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús, “strong”) and κράτος (krátos, “strength”).^[6][1] Köbler sets up the root Proto-Indo-European *kar- (“hard”).^[8] Orel instead relates it to Lithuanian kartùs (“bitter”) and Proto-Slavic *kortъkъ (“short”), an explanation that Wiktionary attributes to Strunk and Heidermanns and says Kroonen favours.^[4][1]

The Germanic /a/ was broken to the diphthong ⟨ea⟩ before ⟨r⟩ and a consonant, a change regular in all dialects before such groups.^[9] Ringe and Taylor note that the comparative heardra lacks the i-umlaut that the old u-stem comparative in *-iz- should have caused, which they ascribe to the influence of the positive.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Vespasian Psalter gloss, added in the middle of the ninth century: Psalm 16:4 "ic heold weagas ða heardan" glosses the Latin "ego custodivi vias duras", "I kept the hard ways".^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller begin with hardness of material (stone, iron, a mail-shirt, a sword) and pass to persons who are hardy and bold in fight, and to what is harsh, stern, severe or hard to bear, such as a hard saying or a hard judgement.^[12][13] In Beowulf the word is frequent in the heroic sense, as in heard under helme "brave under helmet", and of weapons and mail.^[14] Used as a noun it means "what is hard", in the pair heardes and hnesces "hard and soft".^[15] In glosses it renders Latin "durus".^[8]

It lived on as Middle English hard, "hard to the touch, firm", now English hard; the sense "difficult to do" is first recorded about 1200.^[16][17]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – weagas ða heardan “the hard ways” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[10][11]
• 890×897 – in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[18][11]
• s. x² – Ic læg on heardum stane “I lay on hard stone” in Christ in the Exeter Book.^[19][13]
• s. x/xi – heard under helme in the Beowulf manuscript.^[20][14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. hard, firm, not soft (of stone, metal, weapons).^[13][8]
2. of persons: hardy, strong, brave, bold in battle.^[12][14]
3. harsh, stern, severe, cruel; hard to bear.^[12][21]
4. strong, intense, violent (of a fight, a stench).^[21][22]

Noun

1. what is hard, a hard thing.^[15][21]

Word family

• hearde
• heardlīċe
• heardnes
• hierdan
• heardheort
• reġnheard
• īrenheard
• nīþheard
• fȳrheard
• scūrheard

Descendants

• Middle English hard (→ English hard)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 169
3. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 274
4. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 162
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *harduz
6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 152
7. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 22
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. heard
9. ^ Hogg, Richard M. (1992), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 1: Phonology, Oxford: Blackwell, p. § 5.20
10. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
11. ^ a b c Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
12. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 521
13. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 523
14. ^ a b c Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. heard
15. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 524
16. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
17. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
18. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
19. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
20. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
21. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 174
22. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 107