Where does “hardscrabble” come from?
hardscrabble (English) comes from English hard, from Old French hardi, from Old French hardir, from Frankish hardijan, from Proto-Germanic hardijaną, from Proto-Germanic harduz, from Proto-Indo-European kert-, from Proto-Turkic *keŕ- — to travel, tour.
hardscrabble (English): Of land: taking a lot of work to farm, and even...
Definitions
- Of land: taking a lot of work to farm, and even...
Ancestry of “hardscrabble”, step by step
hardscrabble traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English hard
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | hard | Having a severe property; presenting difficulty;... |
| 2 | Old French | hardi | hardy; tough; durable |
| 3 | Old French | hardir | to harden |
| 4 | Frankish | hardijan | to harden, to make hard |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | hardijaną | to make hard, strong; to harden |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | harduz | hard; brave |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | kert- | times; to weave, twist together; time |
| 8 | Proto-Turkic | *keŕ- | to travel, tour |
via English Scrabble
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Scrabble | A board game in which players draw letter tiles and take turns to make interlocking words like a crossword, scoring points according to the letters played and their positions on the board |
| 2 | Middle Dutch | schrabbelen | — |
| 3 | Middle Dutch | schrabben | to scrape |