harm

noun
/hɑːm/UK/hɑɹm/US

Etymology

From Middle English harm, herm, from Old English hearm, from Proto-West Germanic *harm, from Proto-Germanic *harmaz (“harm; shame; pain”). Cognate with Dutch harm (“harm”), German Harm (“harm”), Danish harme (“indignation, resentment”), Icelandic harmur (“sorrow, grief”), Swedish harm (“anger, indignation, harm”).

  1. inherited from *harmaz — “harm; shame; pain
  2. inherited from *harm
  3. inherited from hearm
  4. inherited from harm

Definitions

  1. Physical injury

    Physical injury; hurt; damage.

    • No harm came to my possessions.
    • You can do a lot of harm to someone if you kick them in the teeth.
  2. Emotional or figurative hurt.

    • Although not physically injured in the car accident, she received some psychological harm.
  3. Detriment

    Detriment; misfortune.

    • I wish him no harm.
  4. + 2 more definitions
    1. That which causes injury, damage, or loss.

      • We, ignorant of ourselves, / Beg often our own harms.
    2. To damage, hurt, or injure something, usually an inanimate object.

      • Will justice and conscience of society not be harmed if people avoid the truth?

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at harm. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01harm02emotional03reasoning04discussion05debate06public07national08affecting09affect

A definitional loop anchored at harm. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at harm

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA