Harvest

forms:

OE: hærfest, hærfæst, hęrfest (masculine)

ME: hervest, hervist, hervyst, herwist

ModE: harvest

- developed from Proto-Germanic *harƀisto-z, -usto-z, harbitas meaning “corn-crop” in OE

- perhaps from the root *harƀ- (= Latin carpĕre “to pluck,” “crop)” which has an origin in PIE *kerp- "to gather, pluck"

- also in: Sanskrit krpana- "sword," krpani "shears;" Greek karpos "fruit," karpizomai "make

harvest of;" Latin carpere "to cut, divide, pluck"

- used in: Old Frisian herfst, Middle Dutch and Dutch herfst, Middle Low German hervest, hervst, (Low German harvst, harfst), Old High German herbist (Middle High German herbest, German herbst), Old Norse (with loss of r and contraction) haust

MEANING 1 (used from the 10th century): “The third of the four seasons of the year, the autumn.”

- passed into meaning 2

MEANING 2 (used from the 11th century): “The season for reaping and gathering in the ripened grain.”

In the 16th century, the word autumn (meaning “end of summer”) was borrowed from French (originally Latin word) referring to “the time of gathering crops,” while harvest remained to be used for the action itself

- also in: Compare Italian autunno, Spanish otoño, Portuguese outono

- “Unlike the other three seasons, its names across the Indo-European languages leave no

evidence that there ever was a common word for it.”