hark

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English herken, also herkien and harken,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English *heorcian, an unrecorded form, also given as *hercian,^{[3][6][7][4][8]} beside the recorded heorcnian, the source of hearken.^[9][10] Collins derives hark directly from that recorded verb,^[11] and the Middle English Dictionary thinks it probably comes from its Middle English form.^[2] The change of the Old English vowel to a is regular, as in bark and dark, and Scots keeps herk.^[3] Cognates are Old Frisian harkia, herkia,^[3][7] Middle Low German horken, Middle Dutch horken, Old High German hōrechen and German horchen,^[3][7][4] and the OED sets these forms in one ablaut series.^[3] Its further origin is debated: Klein and Weekley call it an intensive form of hear,^[5][12] Etymonline says perhaps so,^[6] Holthausen connects it with hīeran,^[13] and Wiktionary traces it through Proto-West Germanic *hauʀikōn to Proto-Germanic *hauzijaną (“to hear”) with an intensive -k.^[1] Skeat thought a link with hear hardly possible,^[10] and Barnhart calls the word of unknown origin.^[7] The OED says the long vowel of the Old High German verb may be due to hōren (“to hear”).^[3] For the hunting use, Weekley suggested a separate source, comparing Old French harer (“to set a dog on”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To listen to, with active attention: about 1175, in the Lambeth Homilies.^[3][14] Hoad also gives the 12th century,^[4] while Etymonline and Barnhart say about 1200,^[6][7] and the Middle English Dictionary's first quotation is from before 1225.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the transitive verb came the intransitive one, recorded in the Cursor Mundi before 1400 with to or at and alone, chiefly in the imperative.^[3] Chaucer has it 13 times, mostly as herke.^[15] The imperative became so usual that Johnson (1755) entered hark as an interjection, "list! hear! listen!",^[16] and a form with a following pronoun, as in hark ye and harkee, is recorded from 1594, in Titus Andronicus.^[3] In the English Dialect Dictionary the verb is widespread, with forms such as ack in west Yorkshire and ak in Hertfordshire, where it was said to be seldom used except in the imperative.^[17] A hunting use developed as well: a cry for attention and incitement to hounds, first in The Tempest, usually with an adverb telling them what to do.^[3][4] From it come hark away and hark forward, to go off or forward, from 1737, and the noun, a shout that urges hounds on, also from 1737.^[3] Hark back was first used of hounds that return along their course when the scent is lost until they find it again, and then, figuratively, of people returning to an earlier point.^[3][6][4] Etymonline dates it to 1817 and the hounds' return to 1814,^[6] while the OED's verbal record starts in 1829, with the noun in 1798.^[3] In Scottish and northern dialect hark also meant to whisper or mutter, from before 1600.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – to listen to.^[3][14]
• before 1400 – to listen, with to or at, or alone, chiefly in the imperative.^[3][14]
• 1561 – to find out by asking and listening (obsolete).^[3][14]
• 1594 – imperative with you or ye, later harkee.^[3]
• before 1600 – to whisper or mutter, in Scots and northern dialect.^[3][14]
• before 1616 – a hunting call to hounds.^[3][14]
• 1737 – hark away, hark forward; noun, a shout urging on the hounds.^[3]
• 1798 – noun, a retracing of steps.^[3]
• 1810 – noun, an act of listening.^[3]
• 1813 – hark on, to urge on with cries.^[3]
• 1829 – hark back, of hounds, to return along the course; figuratively, to return to an earlier point.^[3] Etymonline dates hark back to 1817.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To listen, usually in the imperative: Hark! Someone is at the gate.^{[18][19][11][8]}
2. (archaic) To listen to; to give ear to.^[20][21][3]
3. hark back: to recall or return to something earlier: The new houses hark back to an older style.^[19][11][3]
4. hark at: (British, informal) used to draw attention to something foolish that someone has said.^[18][19]
5. (British) To urge hounds forward or back with cries.^[20][3]

Noun

1. A shout that encourages or guides hounds.^[20][3]

Word family

• unharked
• hark back

Related words

• harken
• hearken
• hear

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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)
3. ^ 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 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
14. ^ a b c d e f Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
19. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
20. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
21. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press