From Middle English hardy, hardi, from Old French hardi.

Old French hardi is usually regarded as the past participle of hardir "to harden, be bold, make bold"; compare Occitan ardir, Italian ardire, from Frankish *hardijan; but it may also have come directly from Frankish *hardi, a secondary form of Frankish *hard (compare Old High German harti, herti, secondary forms of Old High German hart ("hard")); or even yet from Frankish *hardig (compare Middle Low German herdich, gmq-oda hærdig, Norwegian herdig, Swedish härdig).

Cognate with hard. May have at some point also been surface analysed as hard + -y.

• (America) IPA: /ˈhɑɹdi/
• (RP) IPA: /ˈhɑːdi/

hardy (comparative hardier, superlative hardiest)

1. Having rugged physical strength; inured to fatigue or hardships.

   Synonyms: hearty, robust, rugged, strong

2. (botany) Able to survive adverse growing conditions.

   Synonyms: hearty, robust, rugged, strong

   A hardy plant is one that can withstand the extremes of climate, such as frost.

3. Brave and resolute.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, page 354 ↗:

     But he was not ſo hardy to abide
     That bitter ſtownd, but turning quicke aſide
     His light-foot beaſt, fled faſt away for feare:

4. Impudent.

• foolhardy

• French: robuste, rustique (of a plant)
• German: abgehärtet, widerstandsfähig
• Italian: resistente, robusto
• Portuguese: resistente
• Russian: выно́сливый
• Spanish: robusto, resistente

hardy (plural hardies)

1. (usually, in the plural) Anything, especially a plant, that is hardy.
2. A blacksmith's fuller or chisel, having a square shank for insertion into a square hole in an anvil.
3. hardy hole

• (British) IPA: /hɑːdi/
• (America) IPA: /hɑɹdi/

From Old English Hearda + īeġ.

1. (historical) A former town in Manchester, England, now absorbed into Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

• As an English, Scottish, and French - surname, from Middle English hardy, hardi, from Old French hardi.
• As an Irish - surname, via mac giolla deacair as a calque of the above.
• Also as a Scottish surname, variant of Hardie.

1. Surname, originally a nickname for a hardy person.
2. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), English novelist and poet.
3. A male given name.
4. A number of places in USA:
   1. A minor city in Sharp County, and.
   2. An unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California.
   3. A minor city in Humboldt County, Iowa.
   4. An unincorporated community and coal town in Pike County.
   5. An unincorporated community in Grenada County, Mississippi.
   6. CDP in Cascade County, Montana.
   7. A village in Nuckolls County, Nebraska.
   8. A twp in Holmes County, Ohio.
   9. An unincorporated community in Franklin County, Virginia.
5. A twp in Parry Sound District, Ontario.
6. A hamlet in Rural Municipality of The Gap No. 39, Saskatchewan.
7. A locality east of Peterborough.