Etymology

harden

hard·en
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Today it means: To become hard. Full definition →

Middle English hardenen ← Old English heardian ← Proto-West Germanic *hardēn
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kret-der.?
  2. Proto-Germanic*harduz
  3. Proto-Germanic*hardijaną
  4. Proto-West Germanic*hardijan
  5. Old Englishhierdan
  6. Proto-Germanic*harduz
  7. Proto-West Germanic*hard(ī)
  8. Proto-West Germanic*hardēn
  9. Old Englishheardian
  10. Middle Englishharden
  11. Middle Englishhardenen
  12. English todayharden

From Middle English hardenen, equivalent to hard + -en. Cognate with Danish hærdne (“to harden; cure”), Swedish hårdna (“to harden”), Norwegian herdne (“to harden”), Icelandic harðna (“to harden”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.