harbour

harbour
\ \ [OE] Etymologically, a harbour is a ‘shelter for a crowd of people’. English acquired it in the late Anglo-Saxon period as herebeorg, perhaps borrowed from Old Norse herbergi, but it began life as a compound of prehistoric Germanic *kharjaz, originally ‘crowd’, later specifically ‘army’ (source also of English harry and related to harness) and *berg- ‘protect’ (which occurs in a range of English words, including barrow ‘mound’, borough, borrow, and bury). The original sense ‘shelter for a crowd or army’ had broadened out by historic times to the more general ‘shelter, lodging’. That is what Old English herebeorg meant, and gradually it underwent further semantic development, via ‘place in which shelter can be obtained’, to (as recently as the 16th century) ‘place of shelter for ships, port’.
\ \ Cf.⇒ BARROW, BOROUGH, BORROW, BURY, HARBINGER, HARNESS, HARRY, HERALD

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • harbour — is spelt our in BrE and harbor in AmE …   Modern English usage

  • harbour — (US harbor) ► NOUN ▪ a place on the coast where ships may moor in shelter. ► VERB 1) keep (a thought or feeling) secretly in one s mind. 2) give a refuge or shelter to. 3) carry the germs of (a disease). ORIGIN Old English, «shelter» …   English terms dictionary

  • harbour — [här′bər] n., vt., vi. Brit. sp. of HARBOR …   English World dictionary

  • Harbour — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Harbour désigne le plus souvent un port maritime. Sommaire 1 Localités 1.1 Australie …   Wikipédia en Français

  • harbour — (BrE) (AmE harbor) noun ADJECTIVE ▪ deep, deep water ▪ good, safe, sheltered ▪ natural ▪ bus …   Collocations dictionary

  • harbour — I UK [ˈhɑː(r)bə(r)] / US [ˈhɑrbər] noun [countable] Word forms harbour : singular harbour plural harbours ** a) an area of water near the land where it is safe for boats to stay. A port is a harbour where passengers and goods can be taken on and… …   English dictionary

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