The story
- Proto-Germanic · derived from*harduz“hard”
- Frankish · derived from*-hard“hardy, bold”
- Old French · derived from-ard
- Middle English · inherited from-ard
- English today-ard
From Middle English -ard, from Old French -ard (suffix), from Frankish *-hard (“hardy, bold”), from Proto-Germanic *harduz (“hard”). Cognate with Middle High German -hart. More at hard.
Words from the same roots
Proto-Germanic*harduz all →
foolhardy
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.