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.

What on Earth?

Or not on Earth as the case may be. I was looking at the names of our planet in languages other than English. It came as something of a disappointment to discover they were mostly translations of 'earth' in the sense of 'soil, dirt'.

Hence, I decided to look elsewhere in the heavens and see what names other languages had given to the remaining seven planets in orbit around our sun. Below is the language, its name and, where possible, the translation. Many nations simply use the same name, albeit with the phonetic spelling reflecting local pronunciation. As these clearly come from the same source as the English names, I have concentrated on the alternatives, and we start with the planet Mercury.

Arabic - Otaared - is the same deity as Mercury, the messenger.
Aztec - Payinalcitlal - research failed to trace any details on where this name originated.
Babylonian - Nabu - the ancient Mesopotamian god of literacy, the rational arts, scribes and wisdom.
Bengali - Budha - is a Hindu deity
Cantonese - Suising - again, no further information.
Farsi - Tir - is the Persian word for 'arrow'.
Greek - Hermes - is the Greek version of Mercury and, once again, the messenger
Hebrew - kochav chama - sun star
Hawaii - Ukaliali'i - is a translation of 'mercury', the metal.
Japan - Suisei - again the translation of 'mercury' the metal.
Kazakhstan - Bolpan - no amount of research revealed where the name comes from.
Korea - Soosung - 'star of water'
Malayalam - Utarid - is the translation of 'mercury'.
Mandarin Chinese - Shuixing - the water planet
Maori - Aparangi - is also a girls name.
Mongolia - budha - again, this is a Hindu deity.
Nahuatl - Payinalcitlal - again, no further information.
Old Czech - Dobropan - is another translation of 'mercury'
Sanskrit - Budha - is a Hindu deity also known as Soumya or 'son of Moon', Rauhineya, and Tunga.
Sumerian - Nabu - a deity, the god of wisdom and writing (known as the Saviour, the Redeemer)
Swahili - Zaibaki - which translates as 'the rest', although this surely has no relevance in this context.
Tahitian - Ta'ero - translates as 'drug', another which hardly seems appropriate.
Uzbek - Utorid - is the same as the Arabic name, but with the Uzbek phonetic pronunciation.

Note the spellings and characters used are English, so don't write to me pointing missing umlauts, accents, etc. or how I should have used a different alphabet.