harp

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English harpe,^[2][3] inherited from Old English hearpe,^[4][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *harpǭ,^[8][4][5][2] also the source of Old Saxon harpa, used of an instrument of torture,^[4][2] Middle Dutch harpe, Old High German harpha (modern German Harfe), Dutch harp and Old Norse harpa, which also meant a large sieve for corn.^[2][4][6][8] The origin of the Germanic word is uncertain.^[4] Barnhart traces it to Proto-Indo-European *kerb- (Pokorny 948),^[2] a root that Köbler glosses "to turn, bend, shrink",^[8] and Merriam-Webster compares Latin curvus (“curved”).^[9] From Germanic came Late Latin harpa, recorded in the 6th century,^[10][5] the source of Italian arpa, Spanish arpa and French harpe.^[4][2][10] The American Heritage Dictionary takes the Middle English noun as partly from Old French harpe as well.^[11] The verb is inherited from Old English hearpian (“to play the harp”), from the noun,^[4][5][9][6] cognate with harpen and harfen;^[4][5] Barnhart thinks it possibly influenced in part by harper.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stringed instrument played with the fingers: in Old English, about 725 in Barnhart,^[2] and first in the Vespasian Psalter in the OED.^[5] Beowulf has hearpan sweg, the sound of the harp.^[7] The Middle English form is first recorded probably before 1200, in Layamon's Brut.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The harp was the instrument of the Germanic peoples: Johnson quoted a 6th-century line of Venantius Fortunatus that sets the Roman lyre against the barbarian harpa.^[12] The verb, to play the harp, is also Old English;^[5][9] its figurative use, to dwell tediously on one subject, began in the phrase to harp upon one string (about 1531),^[5] which Weekley finds in Sir Thomas More,^[10] and to harp on a subject is recorded from 1562.^[5][2] Etymonline dates the figurative sense to the mid-15th century.^[4] Shakespeare used the verb in Macbeth for putting a thing into words, guessing it.^[5] In the 16th century harp also named the constellation Lyra (1556) and Irish coins stamped with a harp (1543),^[5] and the EDD records an Irish shilling called a harp.^[13] In Scotland the word was used from 1768 for a wire screen for sifting grain, sand or coal,^[5] a use that recalls the Norse sense of a corn sieve.^[2] The harp seal (1784) is named for the harp-shaped markings on its back.^[4] In 1887 American English shortened mouth-harp to harp, a harmonica.^[4][5][14] From 1904 harp was American slang for an Irishman.^[5][14] In Worcestershire dialect a verb harp meant to listen or pay attention.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English hearpe, the instrument.^[2]
• c. 1330 – verb, to play notes on a harp (obsolete by 1777).^[5]
• c. 1531 – figurative, to harp upon one string.^[5]
• 1543 – an Irish coin bearing a harp.^[5]
• 1556 – the constellation Lyra.^[5]
• 1562 – harp on, to dwell tediously on a subject.^[5][2]
• before 1616 – to give voice to, to guess, in Shakespeare.^[5]
• 1768 – Scottish, a wire screen for sifting.^[5]
• 1784 – the harp seal.^[4]
• 1887 – a harmonica.^[5][4]
• 1904 – US slang, an Irishman.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large musical instrument with strings of graded lengths stretched across a roughly triangular frame and plucked with the fingers; the orchestral harp has pedals for changing the pitch of the strings.^{[15][16][9][5]}
2. (informal) A harmonica.^[5][14]
3. Something shaped like a harp, such as the metal frame that supports a lampshade.^[15]
4. (US slang) An Irish person.^[5][14]
5. (Scottish) A wire screen for sifting grain, sand or coal.^[5]

Verb

1. To play the harp.^[15][9][5]
2. harp on (or harp on about): to talk about something again and again, tediously: He keeps harping on about his old school.^[9][5][16]

Word family

• harper
• harpist
• harplike
• Jew's-harp
• Aeolian harp

Related words

• harp seal
• harpsichord

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins