Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

hearsome

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: hear-some
IPA

13

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

2

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Ready to hear; obedient; compliant; dutiful; devout.

Example Sentences

""[…] Thou dost like a hearsome wife, thou dost ever say.""
"In that he mis-bade (ruled) his monks in many things and the monks meant it lovingly to him and bade him that he should hold (treat) them rightly and love them and they would be faithful to him and hearsome (obedient)."

Etymology

From Middle English hersum, ihersum, from Old English hīersum, ġehīersum (“obedient”), from Proto-West Germanic *hauʀisam, *gahauʀisam, equivalent to hear + -some. Cognate with West Frisian hearsum (“obedient”), Dutch gehoorzaam (“obedient, dutiful, law-abiding”), Low German horzaam, hursam (“obedient”), German gehorsam (“obedient, submissive, subdued”), Swedish hörsam (“obedient”).

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: hersum, hȳrsum, *hauʀisam
Suffix: hear

Inflected Forms

more hearsome (comparative) most hearsome (superlative) hearsum (alternative, obsolete)

Derived Forms

hearsomeness

Questions

What does hearsome mean?: Ready to hear; obedient; compliant; dutiful; devout.
Where does hearsome come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce hearsome

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