Etymograph

English

hurry

Hurry comes from Middle English horien ‘to rush, impel’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- ‘to run’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱers-1‘to run’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hurzaną1‘to rush’uncertain
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500horien1‘to rush, impel’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596hurry1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English hurry
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Iohn: “And wild amazement hurries up and down / The…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱers-Wiktionary, English hurry‘to run’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hurzanąWiktionary, English hurry‘to rush’uncertain
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500horienWiktionary, English hurry‘to rush, impel’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596hurryWiktionary, English hurry. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Iohn: “And wild amazement hurries up and down / The…”

The story

From Middle English horien (‘to rush, impel’), probably a variation of hurren (‘to vibrate rapidly, buzz’), from Proto-Germanic *hurzaną (‘to rush’) (compare Middle High German hurren (‘to hasten’), Norwegian hurre (‘to whirl around’)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (‘to run’) (compare Latin currō (‘to run’), Tocharian A kursär/Tocharian B kwarsär (‘league; course’)). Alternative etymology derives hurry as a variant of harry.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- ‘to run’

course, career, charge, current, rush, carry, cargo, occur, carrier, currency, curriculum, corridor, carriage, courier, chariot, precursor, carousel, incur, caricature, concur, corsair, cursor, corral, recursive, recursion, recur, courant, succour, hussar, carrack, 43 more

through Proto-Germanic *hurzaną ‘to rush’

hurrah

Today it means

noun A rushed action.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “hurry”. 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-Indo-European *ḱers- / hurry

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