Etymologically
Log in

hare

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 00:40. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /hɛə/, /hɛː/[1]
  • US: /hɛɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hare,[2][3] inherited from Old English hara,[4][5][6][7] from Proto-West Germanic *hasō,[1] from Proto-Germanic *hesô,[1] a common Germanic word for the animal, which Orel, Köbler and the OED reconstruct with a stem in s or z.[8][9][4] It is cognate with Old Frisian hasa, Middle Dutch haese (modern haas), Old High German haso (modern Hase) and Old Norse heri (modern hare and hare);[4][10][11][2] the Old English and Old Norse forms show the change of s to r (rhotacism).[4] Outside Germanic it is compared with Old Prussian sasins, Welsh ceinach and Sanskrit शश (śaśá), all meaning hare.[4][8][12][13] Many etymologists take the hare as "the grey animal", relating the word to hasu (“grey”), Old High German hasan (“grey”) and Latin cānus (“grey, hoary”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱas- (“grey”);[2][12][11][3][14] Orel calls it a taboo name based on a colour adjective,[8] while the OED finds the link with hasu doubtful and Etymonline calls the origin uncertain.[4][5] Skeat instead explained the Sanskrit word as "jumper".[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The animal itself: the word is first recorded in the Epinal Glossary,[4] about 700 according to Barnhart, who also finds it in the place name Haredena before 1154.[11] Bosworth-Toller cites an Old English herbal in which the hare cures itself with a plant.[6]

Semantic evolution

The animal's speed and timidity made the hare a figure for people from about 1325, in various allusive senses.[4][10] Proverbs followed: Langland already has holding with the hare while running with the hounds (1399),[4] and Heywood (1562) has to holde with the hare and run with the hounde;[16] "mad as a March hare", from the animal's wildness in the breeding season, is recorded from 1529.[4] Weekley notes that first catch your hare is not, as often said, from Mrs Glasse's cookery book,[16] and the Shorter Oxford calls that ascription erroneous.[10] Johnson (1755) described the hare as remarkable for timidity, vigilance and fecundity, "the common game of hunters".[17] The name passed to the constellation Lepus (1556) and to the sea hare (1601),[4] and in the 19th century to the runner who lays the paper trail in the game of hare and hounds (1883).[4] The verb hare, to run very fast, is dated 1719 by Merriam-Webster,[13] but by the OED only from 1908, after a short-lived sense "to double back like a hare" (1893).[4][10] In Ireland and Derbyshire the last handful of corn cut at harvest was called the hare.[18]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – Old English hara, the animal.[11][4]
  • before 1154 – in the place name Haredena.[11]
  • c. 1325 – applied figuratively to a person.[4]
  • 1399 – the proverb about holding with the hare and running with the hounds.[4]
  • 1529 – the March hare, wild in the breeding season.[4]
  • 1556 – the constellation Lepus.[4]
  • 1601 – the sea hare, a mollusc.[4]
  • 1719 – verb, to run swiftly, according to Merriam-Webster.[13]
  • 1883 – the runner who lays the scent in hare and hounds.[4]
  • 1893 – verb, to double back like a hare (short-lived).[4]
  • 1908 – verb, to run or move at great speed.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A swift mammal of the family Leporidae, especially of the genus Lepus, larger than a rabbit, with long ears and long hind legs, which lives in a shallow nest above ground.[19][13][10]
  2. The fur of a hare.[13]
  3. The player in hare and hounds who lays the trail of paper for the others to follow.[4][10]
  4. A dummy hare that leads the dogs in greyhound racing; an electric hare.[10]
  5. the Hare: the southern constellation Lepus.[4][10]
  6. run with the hare and hunt with the hounds: to try to stay on good terms with both sides in a quarrel.[19][4]
  7. mad as a March hare: wildly excited or crazy.[4]

Verb

  1. To run or move very fast, often with off or after: The boys hared off towards the station.[19][13][10]

Word family

  • harelike
  • harebrained
  • harelip
  • Belgian hare
  • hare and hounds
  • varying hare
  • harrier
  • harebell
  • canescent

Usage notes

An obsolete verb hare, to harry or harass (1523–1677) and to frighten (1656–1751), has its own uncertain origin: the OED and Merriam-Webster connect it with harry, with perhaps some influence of the noun,[4][13][10] and the English Dialect Dictionary records it in Oxfordshire and the south of England for teasing or frightening.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  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 z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  8. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  15. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  16. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  18. ^ 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)
  19. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins