Hard Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘French’ and now look at ‘hard’

Hard of hearing is a reminder of the other and earlier use of ‘hard’, as in ‘difficult’; this seen from the beginning of the 13th century.

Hard liquor also uses the original sense, the term seen from 1789 (when the phrase is actually ‘hard cider’).

Hard drugs, like ‘hard liquor’, uses the earlier sense, although this term is not recorded before 1955.

Hard facts is first seen in 1853.

Hard news is a journalistic phrase first seen in 1918.

Hard copy – printed rather than electronic – comes from 1964.

Hard disk is first documented in 1978.

Hard drive appears six years later than the above in 1983.

Hard rock, the musical reference and not any geological term, is first seen in 1967. Sadly I could not find which act first earned this appellation, although despite his name it won’t have been Neil Diamond.

Hard times is first documented in 1705, this reference to a period of poverty also used as a title for the 1854 novel by Charles Dickens. (And I’ll read it when he reads one of mine.)

Hard cash originally referred to solid coin rather than bankers’ drafts (first) and paper money (later). Indeed, ‘hard money’ was the original term, this seen from 1706.

Nobody played hard to get until 1945 – and I won’t comment on loose morals, as this is not the meaning here at all.

Nobody did anything the hard way until as recently as 1907.

Hard-hearted was first used to describe people like me in the early 13th century.

Nobody was said to be hard-working until 1708.

Hard-line was first used to describe Soviet communist policies in 1958.

Hard-wired was first used in 1969 in reference to computers, but two years later had also been used to refer to the human brain.

Hard-boiled eggs were first described in 1723, later used in the sense of ‘tough’ from 1886.

Hard-cover books were first described in 1949, which makes perfect sense as although books had hard covers since early days of writing, they were simply ‘books’ until the paperback version appeared and required clarity. However, they took their time, for the first paperbacks appeared in 1841, although not until 1934 did Albatross and Penguin produce paperbacks.

Hard-bitten was used from 1715 to mean ‘tough in a fight’, earlier still to describe hunting dogs.

Hard fought first appears around 1660.

Hard-up, as in financial difficulties, is seen from 1821.

Hard-headed, as an insult, was first used in 1520.

Hard-nosed, or stubborn, first appears in 1927.

Nobody wore a hard hat until 1935, but then it was only used to refer to a Derby and not the helmet of today.

Hardwoods are known as such from 1560.

Die-hard, no not the non-Christmas film but one who is deemed difficult to defeat, is recorded in 1844 to describe the 57th Regiment of Foot of the British Army, and later as an adjective from 1871. Incidentally, there is also a DieHard, - no, not the film(s) – this is a brand of car battery introduced in 1967.

And if you’ve got this far and wondered why I haven’t discussed the hard-on, it’s because nobody had until 1893.