entry
harvest
/ˈhɑɹ.vəst/gathering of ripe crops, especially in autumn
From Proto-Indo-European kerp (to gather).
from PIE root *kerp- "to gather, pluck, harvest." In Old English and Middle English it was primarily a season name,...
+1 more sourcefrom Proto-Germanic *harbitas (source also of Old Saxon hervist , Old Frisian and Dutch herfst , German Herbst...
+1 more sourcefrom Old English hærfest (“autumn, harvest-time; August”)
from Middle English harvest, hervest
from Middle English harvest, hervest
Word Ancestry
from PIE root *kerp- "to gather, pluck, harvest." In Old English and Middle English it was primarily a season name,...
+1 more sourcefrom Proto-Germanic *harbitas (source also of Old Saxon hervist , Old Frisian and Dutch herfst , German Herbst...
+1 more sourcefrom Old English hærfest (“autumn, harvest-time; August”)
from Middle English harvest, hervest
from Middle English harvest, hervest
Before it meant a pile of wheat or corn, this was simply the name of the season itself. Old English hærfest was basically “autumn,” which is a little like calling November “pumpkin time” and then, centuries later, letting the phrase mean the pumpkin-picking too. The word shares deep ancestry with Latin carpere, the same root behind carpe diem, so the family likeness is all about plucking, taking, gathering. Its cousins are spread all over the place: English excerpt snips out a passage, glean picks up leftovers, and reap is the farmhouse sibling doing the same job in a blunter way. Even Thanksgiving in American history leans on this old harvest idea, with the Plymouth celebration of 1621 fixed to the season’s bounty. The neat trick is that harvest started as a calendar word and ended up as a verb for the work itself — a season that learned to get its hands dirty.
The Story
Before it meant a pile of wheat or corn, this was simply the name of the season itself. Old English hærfest was basically “autumn,” which is a little like calling November “pumpkin time” and then, centuries later, letting the phrase mean the pumpkin-picking too. The word shares deep ancestry with Latin carpere, the same root behind carpe diem, so the family likeness is all about plucking, taking, gathering. Its cousins are spread all over the place: English excerpt snips out a passage, glean picks up leftovers, and reap is the farmhouse sibling doing the same job in a blunter way. Even Thanksgiving in American history leans on this old harvest idea, with the Plymouth celebration of 1621 fixed to the season’s bounty. The neat trick is that harvest started as a calendar word and ended up as a verb for the work itself — a season that learned to get its hands dirty.
Kin & Kindred
From 'kerp'·to gather, pluck, harvest
Derived Terms
English words from this root