harbor – English noun declension

English noun forms of harbor

Noun: harbor
Singularharbor
Pluralharbors

Sample Sentences

  • The neighborhood is a well-known harbor for petty thieves.
  • [T]here aboutes dwelt greate multitudes of people half wilde, hiding thẽſelues in caues of the grounde, of ſmall ſtature, and very fearefull, for as ſoone as they ſawe them they fled into their holes, and that there was a great riuer and very good harborough. [1582, Nicolas [i.e., Nicolo] Zeno; Antonio Zeno, “The Discouerie of the Isles of Frisland, Iseland, Engroueland, Estotiland, Drogeo and Icaria, Made by M. Nicolas Zeno, Knight, and M. Antonio His Brother”, in R[ichard] H[akluyt], compiler, Divers Voyages Touching the Discouerie of America, and the Ilands adiacent vnto the Same, […], London: […] [Thomas Dawson] for Thomas Woodcocke, […], →OCLC, signatures D4, recto – D4, verso:]
  • A harbor, even if it is a little harbor, is a good thing, since adventurers come into it as well as go out, and the life in it grows strong, because it takes something from the world and has something to give in return. [1881 October, Sarah Orne Jewett, “River Driftwood”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 48, number 288, page 510, column 2:]

Etymology

From Middle English herberwe, herber, from Old English herebeorg (“shelter, lodgings, quarters”), from Proto-West Germanic *harjabergu (“army shelter, refuge”), from *harjaz (“army”) + *bergō (“protection”), equivalent to Old English here (“army, host”) + beorg (“defense, protection, refuge”). The final syllable was subsequently altered by analogy with the Anglo‐Norman and Old French suffix -or (as seen in loanwords like honour and labour). Doublet of albergo and auberge. See also borrow, bury, harbinger, harry and here. See: Middle English Nouns 'herberwe', Old English Nouns 'herebeorg', Old English Nouns 'here'.

Verbs referencing "harbor"

English Nouns harbinger, Portuguese Nouns albergue, Spanish Nouns albergue.