Etymologically
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hart

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Pronunciation

  • /hart/, [haʁt], [haɐ̯t][1]

Forms

hart (strong nominative masculine singular harter, comparative härter, superlative am härtesten)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German hart, inherited from Old High German hart (“hard, firm, strict, harsh”), inherited from Proto-Germanic *harduz (“hard”).[2][3][1] Beside it stood Old High German herti and Middle High German herte; the EWA explains the alternation by the adjective's old stem in /u/.[3][2] The form with /a/ was northern and Central German, supported by the adverb harte, harto, while the form with /e/ was usual in Bavarian, Alemannic and South Franconian sources and lasted there into the 17th century.[4][3][5]

The same word is Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus), Old Norse harðr, Old English heard and Old Saxon hard, continued in Dutch hard, English hard and Swedish hård.[2][6]

Its further origin is uncertain.[2] Pfeifer and Duden derive it from a root *kar- “hard”, extended as *kartu-, and compare Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús, “strong, mighty”) and κράτος (krátos, “strength, power”).[6][4] Kluge calls this link tempting in form but notes that the vowel and the meaning differ, and that the adjectival use seems secondary; he also cites words of the same shape with other meanings, such as Lithuanian kartùs (“bitter”), and leaves the question open.[2] Orel joins it to the Lithuanian word and to Proto-Slavic *kortъkъ (“short”),[7] and Kroonen, according to Wiktionary, prefers a root meaning “to cut”.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German hart is first recorded in glosses of 765 and in the Tatian;[8][9] herti appears in the Benedictine Rule, the Georgslied, Otfrid, Notker and Williram.[8][9] The EWA gives the senses “hard, firm, strict, oppressive, hard to bear, difficult, harsh, rough, strong, violent”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Paul notes that the present senses were already developed in Old and Middle High German.[10] Besides the physical sense, the opposite of weich, the word was applied to hearing (a harsh tone, a hard pronunciation), to painting with abrupt contrasts (Winckelmann) and to water by analogy with the feel.[10] Luther calls work, struggle, life and illness hart in the sense “hard to bear”.[10] What resists outside influence is also hart: harte Währung “hard currency”, and harter Kern probably after English hard core.[10]

From Germanic times the adjective, in the sense “strong, bold”, was frequent in personal names: Bernhard, Eberhard, Gerhard, Richard, Hartmut.[6][4] Derivatives are Härte, Old High German hertī (9th century), härten, Old High German herten, and hartnäckig (15th century).[6][4] Polish, Ukrainian and Russian borrowed hart, гарт (from Härte) for the hardness of metal or a person's toughness.[11]

Timeline

  • 765 – Old High German hart in glosses.[8]
  • 9th century – hertī “hardness” and herten “to harden”.[6]
  • 15th century – hartnäckig “stubborn”.[4]
  • 1564 – Polish borrows hart.[11]
  • 1635 – Ukrainian гарт “hardness of metal”.[11]
  • 17th century – Southern writers still use herte;[5][6] abhärten “to toughen”.[5][6]
  • 1790 – Russian гарт.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. hard, firm, not soft or elastic: ein harter Stuhl.[12][1]
  2. Of money: stable, hard: eine harte Währung.[12]
  3. Of water: containing much lime.[12][13]
  4. Tough, hardened, robust.[12]
  5. Hard, toilsome, hard to bear.[12][1]
  6. Without pity, harsh, severe; of features, stern, sharp.[12][1]
  7. Marked by sharp contours and contrasts.[12]
  8. Strong, intense; violent: ein harter Winter.[12]

Adverb

  1. Hard, with force or effort: hart arbeiten.[1]
  2. With a preposition: very close: hart an der Grenze.[12][1]

Word family

  • härten
  • Härte
  • abhärten
  • verhärten
  • hartnäckig
  • Hartung
  • Hardware
  • Harsch
  • English hard

Usage notes

Hart im Nehmen sein is to take setbacks and criticism without losing one's composure.[12] The obsolete name Hartung for January belongs to this word.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 396
  3. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  5. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 498
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 150
  10. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  11. ^ a b c d Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org