harsh

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Cruel, unkind, or severe.

   The judge gave him a harsh penalty for a minor crime.

2. 2
   adj

   Unpleasant to the senses; rough or sharp.

   The harsh light made it hard to read the screen.

3. 3
   adj

   Difficult and unpleasant to live in.

   Few plants can survive in such a harsh climate.

From Middle English harsk, harisk(e), hask(e), herris. Century derived the term from Old Norse harskr (whence Danish harsk (“rancid”), dialectal Norwegian hersk, Swedish härsk, Swedish härsken); the Middle English Dictionary derives it from that and Middle Low German harsch (“rough”, literally “hairy”) (whence also German harsch), from haer (“hair”), from Old Saxon hār, from Proto-West Germanic *hār; the Oxford Dictionary of English derives it from Middle Low German alone.

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