hurt

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /hɜːt/, US /hɝːt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hurten, hirten,^[2][3] probably borrowed from Old French hurter (“to ram, strike, collide with”) (modern heurter),^[4][2][3] a word of uncertain origin,^[4][5] perhaps from Frankish *hurt (“ram”),^[4] compare Middle High German hurten “to run at, collide”, Old Norse hrútr “ram” and Middle Dutch horten “to knock”.^[4][2][3] Celtic origins have also been proposed.^[4] The English word is as old as the French, and there may have been an unrecorded native Old English *hyrtan.^[4] The noun is probably from the verb.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb, “to damage, harm, knock or dash against”: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[2] or about 1200;^[4][6] Hoad finds the form hirrtenn in the 12th century.^[7] The noun, “a wound”, is from the same time.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The original sense of knocking or striking things together died out in the 17th century,^[4][6] but compare hurtle.^[4] Injury to a person's body, feelings or reputation is found from the beginning.^[4] The noun also meant “sorrow, lovesickness” in Middle English,^[4] and the sense “injury” is found only in English, not in the French.^[4] To hurt one's feelings is attested by 1779.^[4] “To be a source of pain”, of a body part, is from 1850,^[4][6] and the intransitive “to feel pain” in its current use from about 1902.^[4] Other Germanic languages tend to use their cognate of English scathe for this meaning.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – verb, to injure; to knock against.^[4][2]
• c. 1200 – noun, a wound.^[4][6]
• c. 1400 – adjective, wounded.^[4]
• 1779 – to hurt one's feelings.^[4]
• 1850 – of a body part, to be painful.^[4][6]
• c. 1902 – to feel pain.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To cause physical pain or damage to; to injure.
2. To cause mental or emotional suffering to; to distress.
3. To harm or impair: the scandal hurt his chances.
4. To feel or cause pain: my back hurts.
5. (informal) To be in need, especially of money.

Noun

1. A physical injury; a wound.
2. Mental or emotional pain.
3. Harm or wrong.

Adjective

1. Injured; showing distress: a hurt look.

Word family

• hurter
• hurtable
• hurtle
• unhurt
• hurtful
• hurtless

Related words

• scathe

Usage notes

Two other words are spelled hurt: in heraldry a blue roundel, from French heurte,^[5][6][3] and a dialect name for the whortleberry, of unknown origin.^[5][6]

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 d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press