Etymograph

English

hardly

Hardly comes from Old English heardlīċe ‘boldly; not easily’, from heard ‘hard’, from Proto-Germanic *harduz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*harduz1‘hard’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hard(ī)2‘hard’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150heard3‘hard’
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150heardlīċe4‘boldly’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hardely4
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1816hardly4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī)
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old English heard
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Old English heardlice
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English hardly
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1816, – 1817 April/May, The Modern Prometheus. […]: “Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly and hardly, that…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*harduzWiktionary, Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī)‘hard’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hard(ī)Wiktionary, Old English heard‘hard’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150heardWiktionary, Old English heardlice‘hard’
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150heardlīċeWiktionary, English hardly‘boldly’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hardelyWiktionary, English hardly
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1816hardlyWiktionary, English hardly. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1816, – 1817 April/May, The Modern Prometheus. […]: “Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly and hardly, that…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with hardly, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *kret- ‘strong, powerful’

  • rather ← hraþor ← hraþe ← *hraþē ← *hradō
  • bureaucracy ← bureaucratie ← κρᾰ́τος ← *krét-os
  • bureaucratic ← bureaucratique ← bureaucratie ← κρᾰ́τος ← *krét-os
  • aristocracy ← aristocratie ← aristocratia ← ἀριστοκρατίᾱ ← ἄριστος
  • bureaucrat ← bureaucrate ← bureaucratie ← κρᾰ́τος ← *krét-os

through Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī) ‘hard’

  • harden ← hardenen ← heardian

through Old English heard ‘hard, harsh, austere, severe, rigorous, stern, stubborn, firm, hardy, brave’

46 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adv Barely, only just, almost not.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “hardly”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), Old English heard, Old English heardlice. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *harduz / hardly