hardy
/ˈhɑɹdi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.86 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Able to survive adverse growing conditions, especially frost.
adj
noun
Anything, especially a plant, that is hardy.
noun
A blacksmith's fuller or chisel, having a square shank for insertion into a square hole in an anvil.
noun
A hardy hole.
name
A former town in Manchester, England, now absorbed into Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
Example Sentences
- "It is an useful sort of the smaller kind of hogs, that is hardy in its nature and of considerable weight in proportion to its size."
- "Even adding 1mm of thickness to the cardboard, to make it hardier, might use up a substantial forest when multiplied across hundreds of billions of boxes."
- "A hardy plant is one that can withstand the extremes of climate, such as frost."
- "The oat is hardier than wheat, and ripens in higher latitudes."
- "By watching where the snow melted first, I discovered warmer spots that I knew would be possible locations for late-winter bloomers or borderline hardy plants."
- "But he was not ſo hardy to abide That bitter ſtownd, but turning quicke aſide His light-foot beaſt, fled faſt away for feare:"
Etymology
From Middle English hardy, hardi, from Old French hardi (“hardy, daring, stout, bold”). Old French hardi is usually regarded as the past participle of hardir ("to harden, be bold, make bold"; compare Occitan ardir, Italian ardire), from Frankish *hardijan; but it may also have come directly from Frankish *hardi, a secondary form of Frankish *hard (compare Old High German harti, herti, secondary forms of Old High German hart (“hard”)); or even yet from Frankish *hardig (compare Middle Low German herdich (“persevering”), Old Danish hærdig, Norwegian herdig, Swedish härdig (“vigorous, courageous”)). Cognate with hard. May have at some point also been surface analysed as hard + -y.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: hardy, hardi, *hardijan, *Hearda, -
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhɑɹdi/
- British English: /ˈhɑːdi/
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in People.
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
cold hardy
crack hardy
hale and hardy
half-hardy
hardy ageratum
hardy catalpa
hardy kiwi
hardy orange