Etymologically
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hurt

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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
  • 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