harden

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hardnen,^[2][3] formed from Middle English hard + -nen,^[2][4][5][6] from the adjective hard, which is from Old English heard (“solid, firm; severe”).^[5] The OED and the Shorter Oxford compare Old Norse harðna (“to become hard”), on which the Shorter Oxford thinks the English verb was modelled.^[4][6] It largely replaced an older verb hard,^[4][6][5] from Old English heardian (“to be or become hard”),^[5][7][8] which matches Old Saxon hardōn and Old High German hartēn.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make hard or harder; to firm up or stiffen: about 1175, in the Ormulum,^[4] which also has it for "to make bold, encourage" and "to maintain steadfastly, affirm".^[4] Etymonline dates the transitive verb to about 1200,^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1150–1200.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense "to become hard" is recorded from about 1350,^[4] late in the 14th century according to Etymonline,^[5] and the same Psalter of about 1350 has the figurative sense "to make unfeeling or callous".^[4] From the early 15th century it also meant to make someone stubborn, to confirm them in a habit or belief.^[4] The sense "affirm" died out about 1400, and "to make bold, encourage" is now rare.^[4] Elyot used it of making the body hardy and able to endure (about 1532),^[4] and it could mean "to become callous" by 1577.^[4] From the 17th century it was used of things growing more severe or more clearly defined (1625).^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to make hard; to indurate".^[10] In Yorkshire dialect the passive was used for being obstinate or incorrigible.^[11] Technical uses include hardening steel by heat treatment and hardening oils by hydrogenation,^[2] and in commerce prices are said to harden when they stop falling or rise.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – to make hard; also, to encourage, and to affirm (obsolete by 1400).^[4]
• c. 1350 – to become hard; to make unfeeling or callous.^[4]
• before 1425 – to make stubborn, to confirm in a habit or belief.^[4]
• c. 1532 – to make hardy or robust.^[4]
• 1577 – to become callous or unfeeling.^[4]
• 1625 – of things, to become more severe or more clearly defined.^[4]
• 1865 – to become hardy; to become used to hard conditions.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make or become hard or harder; to set, stiffen or solidify: The resin hardens in an hour.^[12][2][4]
2. To make a metal such as steel hard by heat treatment, or an oil solid by hydrogenation.^[2]
3. To make or become tougher or more hardy; to toughen: hardened by years of farm work.^[12][4]
4. To make or become unfeeling or callous: War had hardened him.^[12][4]
5. To make or become firmer, stronger or more fixed: Opposition to the plan hardened.^[12][4]
6. (commerce) Of prices or a market, to stop fluctuating, or to rise.^[12]

Word family

• hardenable
• hardenability
• caseharden
• hardened
• hardener
• hardening
• overharden
• preharden

Related words

• hard
• hardy
• hardness

Usage notes

A separate dialect word harden, a coarse fabric made from the hurds of flax or hemp, is recorded from about 1430;^[4][2][6] it is probably formed from hurds with the suffix -en,^[4][6] and Merriam-Webster gives its Middle English forms as herdyng and herden.^[2] Wright recorded it from Scotland and many northern and Midland counties.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins