Etymograph

English

hurt

Hurt comes from Middle English hurten, from Old Northern French hurter ‘to ram into, strike’, perhaps from Frankish *hūrt ‘battering ram’.

  1. Frankishc. 250–700*hūrt1‘a battering ram’uncertain
  2. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400hurter1‘to ram into, strike’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hurten1‘to injure’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1382–1395hurt1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English hurt
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe et al., The Holy Bible: “He that hath eeris, here he, what the spirit…”.

Lineage

  1. Frankishc. 250–700*hūrtWiktionary, English hurt‘a battering ram’uncertain
  2. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400hurterWiktionary, English hurt‘to ram into, strike’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hurtenWiktionary, English hurt‘to injure’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1382–1395hurtWiktionary, English hurt. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe et al., The Holy Bible: “He that hath eeris, here he, what the spirit…”

The story

Germanic cognates include Dutch horten (‘to push against, strike’), Middle Low German hurten (‘to run at, collide with’), Middle High German hurten (‘to push, bump, attack, storm, invade’), Old Norse hrútr (‘battering ram’). Alternate etymology traces Old Northern French hurter rather to Old Norse hrútr (‘ram (male sheep)’), lengthened-grade variant of hjǫrtr (‘stag’), from Proto-Germanic *herutuz, *herutaz (‘hart, male deer’), which would relate it to English hart (‘male deer’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Explore everything descended from *hūrt →

Another origin of hurt

  1. Frenchc. 1600–presentheurt‘collision’disputed
  2. Englishtodayhurt

Suggestions include: from its resemblance to a blue hurtleberry, or from French heurt (a blow, leaving a blue bruise), the latter of which would make it a doublet of hurt Etymology 1; compare the theories about golpe (‘purple roundel’)).disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.

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Today it means

verb To cause (a person or animal) physical pain and/or injury.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “hurt”. 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 / Frankish *hūrt / hurt