▪ I. hart
(hɑːt)
Forms: 1 heorut, heorot, 1–4 heort, 3–6 hert, 4–6 herte, 5–6 harte, 5– hart.
[ME. hert, OE. heort, heorot = OLG. hirot (MDu., Du. hert, LG. hart), OHG. hiruȥ, hirȥ (MHG. hirȥ, Ger. hirsch, from earlier hirsz), ON. hjǫrtr (Sw., Da. hiort):—OTeut. *herut-, perh.:—*herwut-, *herwot-, with dental formative -t, appended to a stem cognate with L. ceruo-s; perh. related to Gr. κερατ- horn, as if = ‘the horned’.]
1. The male of the deer, esp. of the red deer; a stag; spec. a male deer after its fifth year.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter xli[i], 2[1] Swe swe heorut ᵹewillað to waellum wetra. c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. xxxv. §6 Nan heort ne onscunode nænne leon. c 1205 Lay. 26762 Swa hund þene heort driueð. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 376 Wo so..slou hert oþer hynde. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 1121 (Dido) Ne hound for hert or wilde bor or der. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxv. (1495) 134 As it faryth in horses, camelles, and hartes. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 226 As the hart renneth to the water. 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. ii. v. 889 Your Hart is..the fourth yeare a Stagge, the fift yeare a great Stag, the sixt yeare a Hart. 1611 Bible Ps. xlii. 1 As the Hart panteth after the water brookes. 1741 Compl. Fam. Piece ii. i. 289 To find out the Harbour or Layer of a Hart. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles iv. ii, See him dart O'er stock and stone like hunted hart. |
† b. hart of grease, a fat hart.
hart of ten, a hart with ten branches on his horns.
hart royal, a hart that has been chased by a royal personage.
| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 1750 Gyrfacouns y-muwed & white stedes, & hertes of gresse y wene. a 1440 Sir Degrev. 249 Hys proud hertes of grese Bereth no chartur of pes. c 1550 Adam Bell in Furniv. Percy Folio (1868) III. 421 Eche of them slew a hart of greece The best they could there see. 1598 J. Manwood Lawes Forest 24 b, If the King or Queene doe hunt or chase him, and he escape away aliue, then..he is called a Hart Royall. Ibid. iv. §6. 28 When a Hart is past his sixt yeere, he is generally to be called a Hart of Tenn. 1637 B. Jonson Sad Sheph. i. ii, A great, large deer! Rob. What head? John. Forked: a hart of ten. 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1677) 6 If hunted by the King, a Hart Royal. 1822 Scott Nigel xxvii, There is a pleasure in looking at a hart of grease. |
2. Comb., as
hart-like adj.,
hart-skin;
hart-berry, a local name of the Bilberry;
† hart-bramble, Buckthorn;
† hart-evil (see
quot.);
† hart-fly, an insect. ? the stag-beetle;
† hart-horse,
tr. Gr. ἱππέλαϕος, ‘
lit. the horse-deer, perhaps the
rusa,
Cervus Aristotelis’ (Liddell & Scott);
† hart-hound, a stag-hound;
† hart-root,
hart's-root (see
quots.);
hart's-balls = hart's truffles;
hart's black (see
quot.);
† hart's-crest, the imaginary horns on the forehead of a cuckold;
† hart's-eye, a plant: see
quot.;
† hart's-head (see
quot.);
† hart's-trefoil, Melilot
= hartclover;
hart's-truffle, a kind of underground fungus (
Elaphomyces);
† hart-thorn [
tr. L.
spina cervina], Buckthorn,
Rhamnus catharticus;
† hart-wolf, a fabulous animal, a hybrid between a deer and a wolf.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 332 Cnua þonne *heorot brembel leaf. |
| 1727 Bailey vol. II, *Hart Evil (with Farriers), the Stag-evil, a Rheum or Defluxion, that falls upon the Jaws and other Parts..of a Horse, which hinders him from eating. |
| 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry iii. xviii, (1611) 152 As the *Hart⁓fly Beetle, Ladi-cow, [etc.] |
| 1550 J. Coke Eng. & Fr. Heralds vii. (1877) 59 Greyhoundes, *hartehoundes, buckehoundes, and begles. |
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iv. Handicrafts 402 With *Hart-like legs. |
| 1611 Cotgr., Libanot, Hearbe Frankincense..*Hart-root. |
| 1677 Littleton Lat. Dict., *Harts-root, libanotis [= rosemary]. 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Hart-Root, the Athamanta of Linnæus. |
| 1866 Treas. Bot., *Hart'sballs, Elaphomyces. |
| 1851 Dict. Archit., *Hart's Black, that substance remaining..after the spirits, volatile salt and oil, have been extracted from hartshorn..when..levigated it answers the purpose of painters nearly as well as ivory black. |
| 1600 J. Lane Tel-troths Message 44 The married men might..shunne the *Harts crest to their hearts content, With cornucopia, Cornewall, and the horne. |
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 126 Elaphoscum: (that is, as some call it *Harts eye, others Hart-thorne, or grace of God, others wild Ditany). |
| 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 26 [Clouds] in the form of the letter V, jagg'd on each side..called by the water-men the *Harts-head. |
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 177/1 An *Hartskyn..nembris. 1624 Harington Sch. Salerne in Babees Bk. 255 In the Summer-time I chiefly commend garments of Harts-skinnes, and Calues-skins. |
| 1640 Parkinson Theat. Bot. Table, *Harts Trefoile is Mellilot. |
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 389 Deer balls, a synonym of *Hart's Truffles..Elaphomyces. 1607 *Hart-thorne [see hart's-eye]. 1611 Florio, Spina ceruina, the wilde Harthorne. |
| 1577 Eden & Willes Hist. Trav. 295 *Harte Woolfes..engendred eyther of a Woolfe and a Hynde, or a Hart and a bitch Woolfe. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 166 They have..Hart-Wolves brought up to hunt their own kinde. |
▪ II. hart obs. f. heart;
obs. var. art (see
be).