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Added 9 October 2026

hurt

/hɜːt/ noun

In Latin: doleō Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about hurt at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Any physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident or fracture etc.
Psychological suffering.
the death of his wife caused him great distress
Feelings of mental or physical pain.

verb

Be the source of pain.
Give trouble or pain to.
This exercise will hurt your back
Cause emotional anguish or make miserable.
It pains me to see my children not being taught well in school

adjective

Suffering from physical injury especially that suffered in battle.
nursing his wounded arm
Damaged; used of inanimate objects or their value.

Origin

From Middle English hurten, hirten, hertan (“to injure, scathe, knock together”), from Old Northern French hurter ("to ram into, strike, collide with"; > Modern French heurter), perhaps from Frankish *hūrt (“a battering ram”), cognate with Welsh hwrdd (“ram”) and Cornish hordh (“ram”). Compare Proto-Germanic *hrūtaną, *hreutaną (“to fall, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *krew- (“to fall, beat, smash, strike, break”); however, the earliest instances of the verb in Middle English are as old as those found in Old French, which leads to the possibility that the Middle English word may instead be a reflex of an unrecorded Old English *hyrtan, which later merged with the Old French verb.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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