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Posted: **Tue Mar 28, 2023 2:12 am**

I can't find a believable origin for this common word. Any ideas?

Posted: **Mon Nov 27, 2023 8:09 pm**

Courtesy of Etymonline:

1590s, transitive and intransitive, first recorded in Shakespeare, who used it often; perhaps a variant of harry (v.), or perhaps a West Midlands sense of Middle English hurren "to vibrate rapidly, buzz" (of insects), from Proto-Germanic *hurza "to move with haste" (source also of Middle High German hurren "to whir, move fast," Old Swedish hurra "to whirl round"), which also perhaps is the root of hurl (v.).

Posted: **Mon Nov 27, 2023 11:30 pm**

Thanks for the leg-work on this one, Slava. I clicked your link and discovered this remarkable assertion under 'harry'.

...from Proto-Germanic *harjan "an armed force" (source also of Old English here)...

It's the bit in brackets that raised my eyebrows. How do we get from an armed force to here? Sounds unlikely to me.

Posted: **Tue Nov 28, 2023 5:47 am**

But David, you dropped the rest of the sentence, which is

, Old Norse herr "crowd, great number; army, troop," Old Saxon and Old Frisian heri, Dutch heir, Old High German har, German Heer, Gothic harjis "a host, army").

The here there is Old English, not current English for in this place.

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Hurry

Hurry

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