Etymology
1. c.1200, from O.Fr.
hurter "to ram, strike, collide," perhaps from Frank.
*hurt (cf. M.H.G.
hurten "run at, collide," O.N.
hrutr "ram"). Sense of "injury" is purely an Eng. development. Sense of "knock" died out 17c., but cf.
hurtle.
2. From Middle English hurten, hirten, hertan (“to injure, scathe, knock together”), from Old Northern French hurter ("to ram into, strike, collide with"; > Modern French heurter), perhaps from Frankish *hūrt (“a battering ram”), cognate with Welsh hwrdd (“ram”) and Cornish hordh (“ram”). Compare Proto-Germanic *hrūtaną, *hreutaną (“to fall, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *krew- (“to fall, beat, smash, strike, break”); however, the earliest instances of the verb in Middle English are as old as those found in Old French, which leads to the possibility that the Middle English word may instead be a reflex of an unrecorded Old English *hyrtan, which later merged with the Old French verb. 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”).
3. 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”). See hart. See: Middle English '
hurten', French '
heurter', Cornish '
hordh', Proto-Germanic '
*hrūtaną', Old English '
*hyrtan', Dutch '
horten', Middle High German '
hurten'.
Verbs referencing "hurt"
English
hurtle, Sranan
ati.