hard

Pronunciation

• IPA: /hɑːd/ (UK); /hɑːrd/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hard, inherited from Old English heard (“solid, firm; severe”),^[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *harduz,^[4][3][5] whose descendants include Old Frisian herd, Old Saxon hard, Dutch hard, Old High German harti (modern German hart), Old Norse harðr and Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus).^[4][6][7] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kortu-, a suffixed form of the root *kar- (“hard”),^[3][4] and is related to Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús, “strong”) and κράτος (krátos, “strength”),^[5][7][6] the source of the ending -cracy.^[8] The adverb is from Old English hearde.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not yielding or soft, solid, firm (about 725, in Beowulf); also, in Old English, difficult to endure, and of people severe or cruel.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “difficult to do” dates from about 1200.^[3] Hard of hearing keeps an obsolete Middle English sense, “having difficulty in doing something”.^[3][10] The adverb meant “with effort or energy” from the late 14th century.^[3] Water containing mineral salts has been called hard since the 1650s and consonants since 1775.^[3] Hard meaning “strong, alcoholic” (hard cider) dates from 1789, and probably led to hard drugs (1955).^[3][11] Later compounds include hard times (1705), hard money, coin rather than paper (1706), hard facts (1853), hard copy (1964) and hard disk (1978).^[3] Weekley notes that hard up was originally a nautical steering term, and that the Middle English sense “firm ground” survives in Portsmouth Hard, a landing place.^[10][5]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English heard, solid, firm; adverb hearde (Beowulf).^[4]
• 1126 – Middle English hard.^[2]
• c. 1200 – difficult to do.^[3]
• 1340 – stingy (now rare).^[12]
• late 14th century – adverb, with effort or energy.^[3]
• 1650s – of water, containing mineral salts.^[3]
• 1705 – hard times.^[3]
• 1775 – of consonants.^[3]
• 1789 – of drink, strong, alcoholic.^[3][11]
• 1886 – hard-boiled (American).^[4]
• 1955 – hard drugs.^[3][11]
• 1964 – hard copy.^[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Firm and solid; not easily broken, bent or pierced.
2. Difficult to do or understand: a hard question.
3. Needing or showing great effort: hard work.
4. Strict or harsh: a hard taskmaster.
5. Severe; difficult to bear: a hard winter.
6. Physically or mentally tough.
7. Of water, containing dissolved mineral salts.
8. Of drink, strongly alcoholic; of drugs, strongly addictive.

Adverb

1. With great effort: worked hard.
2. With great force: raining hard.
3. Close, near: hard by.
4. (nautical) To the limit: hard right.

Noun

1. (British) A firm beach or landing place.
2. (British slang) Hard labour.

Word family

• blowhard
• hard-bitten
• hard-hit
• hard-hitting
• hard-pressed
• hard-wired
• hard-won

Related words

• hardy
• harden
• hardly
• -ard
• -cracy

Usage notes

Hard is the most general word for something requiring great effort, while difficult is often preferred when skill or ingenuity is needed, and arduous stresses sustained exertion.^[13][8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
9. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
12. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin