/ˈhɑɹdi/, /ˈhɑːdi/
OriginFrom 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.
- Having rugged physical strength; inured to fatigue or hardships.
“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.”
- Able to survive adverse growing conditions, especially frost.
“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.”
- Brave and resolute.
“But he was not ſo hardy to abide
That bitter ſtownd, but turning quicke aſide
His light-foot beaſt, fled faſt away for feare:”
- Impudent.
- plural-normallyAnything, especially a plant, that is hardy.
“Across the country, various bands of journalistic hardies — newsroom pros whose services are no longer salient to a crippled and disrupted information economy — have taken matters into their own hands”
- A blacksmith's fuller or chisel, having a square shank for insertion into a square hole in an anvil.
- hardy hole
- historicalA former town in Manchester, England, now absorbed into Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
- A common surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname for a hardy person.
- Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), English novelist and poet.
- A male given name transferred from the surname.
- A minor city in Sharp County and Fulton County, Arkansas.
- An unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California.
- A minor city in Humboldt County, Iowa.
- An unincorporated community and coal town in Pike County, Kentucky.
- An unincorporated community in Grenada County, Mississippi.
- A census-designated place in Cascade County, Montana.
- A village in Nuckolls County, Nebraska.
- A township in Holmes County, Ohio.
- An unincorporated community in Franklin County, Virginia.
- A township in Parry Sound District, Ontario, Canada.
- A hamlet in Rural Municipality of The Gap No. 39, Saskatchewan, Canada.
- A locality east of Peterborough, South Australia.
Formshardier(comparative) · hardiest(superlative) · hardies(plural) · Hardies(plural) · Hardys(plural)