海角大神

The rhododendron beside my front door spent most of the winter encased in what I can only describe as a magnificent helmet of ice. This was owing to the bush鈥檚 proximity to a drainpipe, which has fortunately been doing its job of carrying moisture down from the roof reasonably well. Moisture had splashed onto the bush and frozen, producing a shape the most imaginative sculptor would have been hard pressed to invent.

With the recent thaw, however, the ice helmet diminished, and one evening it occurred to me that it might be a kindness to the bush to see if I could pull the thing off altogether. As soon as I touched it, it fell to the ground with a thunk. Reaching down to pick it up, I found that, from where I stood above on my stoop, I couldn鈥檛 even lift it.

When landscapers talk about plants being 鈥渉ardy,鈥� this is what they mean: The bush that has been covered for weeks with ice and snow eventually emerges intact, complete with buds about to burst into bloom.

A reader wrote in a while back to ask about hardy and its near- hearty. The two words sound alike, especially when pronounced with an American accent that turns the 鈥渢鈥� of 鈥渉earty鈥� into a 鈥渄鈥� 鈥� that 鈥渧oices鈥� the consonant, a phonetician would say. The two words are different 鈥� except that they overlap.

Hardy, meaning 鈥渂old, daring, fearless,鈥� came into English about 1200, according to the . The word comes from the Old French hardi.

Dictionaries today give 鈥渂old鈥� as one of the meanings of 鈥渉ardy,鈥� and even 鈥渁udacious鈥� or 鈥渂razen.鈥� But the more common sense of hardy nowadays is that of 鈥渁ble to withstand adverse conditions.鈥� It鈥檚 applied to plants able to survive winter cold and also extended to fans of chronically losing teams.

The hard particle lives on in proper names. Hardy is a common surname, in both the English-speaking and French-speaking worlds. , as a given name, can be interpreted as 鈥渂old ruler.鈥� of England is the poster child here. A number of other personal names 鈥� such as Bernard and Gerard in their various forms in English and other languages 鈥� incorporate that same idea of 鈥渂oldness.鈥�

Hearty, meanwhile, is etymologically 鈥渇ull of heart,鈥� in a metaphorical sense, which included ideas of 鈥渟oul, spirit, will, desire; courage; mind, intellect,鈥� as the notes. When you speak of learning something 鈥渂y heart,鈥� you鈥檙e drawing on the old idea of 鈥渉eart鈥� as the seat of intellect. Our English comes ultimately from the Latin word for 鈥渉eart.鈥� The idea is of 鈥渋nner strength.鈥�

So one word comes from Old French and the other from Old English. Their essential meanings are different but not unrelated.

After this winter, though, even the hardy plants will give spring a welcome that is hearty.