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Hansard

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Hansard¹

  • /ˈhænsəd/ UK
  • /ˈhænsɚd/ US

Where it comes from

PIE word

*ḱóm

From Middle English hansard (“merchant or citizen of a Hanseatic town; member of a merchant guild; a surname”), from hanse, hansze, hanze, haunse (“merchant guild; the Hanseatic League; member of the Hanseatic League; membership fee for a merchant guild; payment in general”) + -ard (suffix forming adjectives and nouns). Hanse is derived from Old French hanse (“merchant guild; membership fee for a merchant guild”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by; with; along”) + *sed- (“to sit”). The English word is analysable as Hanse (“merchant guild; the Hanseatic League”) + -ard (suffix forming agent nouns, especially pejorative ones).

proper noun

  1. A surname. The Armes of a very ancient Family, ſettled at Kelſey in the County, which came to them by the Marriage of the Heireſs of Hanſard.

noun Hansards

  1. also, attributive, historical A member of a Hanse (“merchant guild”), or a resident of a Hanse town. The cloſe of the thirteenth century appears to been have a remarkable era in the commercial hiſtory of London. In 1296, the company of merchant-adventurers was firſt incorporated by Edward I. The Hanſards, or Hanſe merchants, also received conſiderable privileges about the ſame time.

Hansard²

  • /ˈhænsəd/ UK
  • /ˈhænsɑːd/ UK
  • /ˈhænsɚd/ US

Where it comes from

From Hansard, the surname of Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), an English printer who inherited the business of printing reports of parliamentary debates and proceedings from his father Luke Hansard (1752–1828). T. C. Hansard added his name to the title of the reports from 1829, and from about 1859 they began to be referred to generically as “Hansards”.

noun Hansards

  1. Commonwealth, UK The official report of debates and other proceedings in the British and some Commonwealth parliaments. Mr. BURNS thought that if they were to have a Hansard at all, they should take steps to have it thoroughly well done, and he would be very glad if they could get rid of these corrections altogether. He thought the exact words, or as nearly as possible the exact words, should be put into the Hansard,

Translations

Every language

noun official report of debates and other proceedings in the British and some Commonwealth parliaments

FrançaisHansard
DeutschHansard
Italianoresocontazione parlamentare

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Cite this
MLA

"Hansard." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/hansard. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

Hansard. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/hansard

Chicago

"Hansard." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/hansard.

BibTeX
@misc{hansard_2026,
  title = {Hansard},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/hansard},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}