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Hurt

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hurt¹

  • /hɜːt/ UK
  • /həːt/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /heːt/
  • /hɛːt/
  • /høːt/ Wales
  • /hʌɾt/ Scotland
  • /hɝt/ US
  • /hɜːt/ Australia
  • /høːt/ New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)t

Where it comes from

From Middle English hurten, hirten, hertan (“to injure, scathe, knock together”), from Old Northern French hurter ("to ram into, strike, collide with"; > Modern French heurter), perhaps from Frankish *hūrt (“a battering ram”), cognate with Welsh hwrdd (“ram”) and Cornish hordh (“ram”). Compare Proto-Germanic *hrūtaną, *hreutaną (“to fall, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *krew- (“to fall, beat, smash, strike, break”); however, the earliest instances of the verb in Middle English are as old as those found in Old French, which leads to the possibility that the Middle English word may instead be a reflex of an unrecorded Old English *hyrtan, which later merged with the Old French verb. Germanic cognates include Dutch horten (“to push against, strike”), Middle Low German hurten (“to run at, collide with”), Middle High German hurten (“to push, bump, attack, storm, invade”), Old Norse hrútr (“battering ram”).

Alternate etymology traces Old Northern French hurter rather to Old Norse hrútr (“ram (male sheep)”), lengthened-grade variant of hjǫrtr (“stag”), from Proto-Germanic *herutuz, *herutaz (“hart, male deer”), which would relate it to English hart (“male deer”). See hart.

verb hurts · hurting · hurt · hurted

  1. intransitive, transitive To cause (a person or animal) physical pain and/or injury. If anybody hurts my little brother, I will get upset.
  2. intransitive, transitive To cause (somebody) emotional pain. He was deeply hurt he hadn’t been invited.
  3. intransitive, stative To be painful. Does your leg still hurt? / It is starting to feel better.
  4. intransitive, transitive To damage, harm, impair, undermine, impede. This latest gaffe hurts the legislator’s reelection prospects still further.

Similar: ache, afflict, aggrieve, agonize, anguish, dere, excruciate, hurt, irritate, pang, pine, rack

adjective more hurt · most hurt

  1. Wounded, physically injured.
  2. Feeling physical or emotional pain.

noun hurts

  1. countable, uncountable An emotional or psychological humiliation or bad experience. how to overcome old hurts of the past
  2. archaic, countable, uncountable A bodily injury causing pain; a wound or bruise. I have received a hurt.
  3. archaic, countable, uncountable Injury; damage; detriment; harm Thou dost me yet but little hurt.
  4. countable, uncountable A band on a trip hammer's helve, bearing the trunnions.
  5. countable, uncountable A husk.

hurt²

  • /hɜːt/ UK
  • /həːt/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /heːt/
  • /hɛːt/
  • /høːt/ Wales
  • /hʌɾt/ Scotland
  • /hɝt/ US
  • /hɜːt/ Australia
  • /høːt/ New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)t

Where it comes from

Unclear. Suggestions include: from its resemblance to a blue hurtleberry, or from French heurt (a blow, leaving a blue bruise), the latter of which would make it a doublet of hurt Etymology 1; compare the theories about golpe (“purple roundel”)).

noun hurts

  1. A roundel azure (blue circular spot).

Hurt³

proper noun Hurts

  1. uncountable A town in Virginia.
  2. countable A surname.

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