hardscrabblen.adj.

Brit.

/ˈhɑːdskrabl/, U.S.

/ˈhɑrdˌskræb(ə)l/

Forms: see hard adj. and n. and scrabble n.¹

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: hard adj., scrabble n.¹

Etymology: < hard adj. + scrabble n.¹With sense A. 2 compare earlier use in actual place names in the United States:1804 Weekly Visitor, or, Ladies' Misc. 7 Jan. 63/2 Married... At Hard Scrabble, (Virg.) on the 13th Dec. Mr. John Ward..to Miss Charity Darling.1804 J. Whitehouse Jrnl. 24 June in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1997) XI. 30 We encamped at a Priari [= prairie] called hard scrabble Priari.

Originally and chiefly North American.

A. n.

1. A vigorous effort, typically in difficult circumstances or in pursuit of a difficult objective; a struggle. Now somewhat rare.In early use probably not as a fixed collocation.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > manner of action > effort or exertion > [noun] > under difficulties

strugglingc1386

struggle1692

hardscrabble1784

sprattle1824

1784 B. Bailey Let. 22 Jan. (Bodl., USPG C/Can. NS.1, No. 96) I take the liberty to trouble you with the information of my being after many a hard Scrable at last arrived.

1812 Salem Gaz. 29 May 2/3 Presidential Hard Scrabble!

1848 Pensacola (Florida) Gaz. 8 July These would only serve to give him false views of real life, and unfit him for the ‘hard scrabble’ by which he must achieve his purpose.

1854 S. Hale Let. 21 Nov. (1919) 7 By a well-organised hard-scrabble, Luc. and I get the breakfast things washed by nine o'clock.

1888 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Sentinel 25 May 4/4 Gen. Bragg has written a Fond du Lac friend that he will never again make a ‘hard-scrabble’ for a congressional nomination in the Second or any other district.

1914 Emporia (Kansas) Weekly Gaz. 23 Apr. It will take a ‘Hard Scrabble’ to make evil of the new move of our financial committee.

2014 www.sfreviews.net 3 June (O.E.D. Archive) The harsh realities of the adult world, with its war, violence, crime, terrorism, political duplicity, and never-ending hard-scrabble to keep your head above water.

†2. As an invented name for a place remote from civilization or where living conditions are basic or difficult. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > distance > distance or farness > [noun] > distant parts > a remote or inaccessible place

out-place1530

inaccessibilities1651

inaccessible1792

the back of beyond1816

hardscrabble1821

the back of Godspeed1827

out-of-the-way1971

1821 Lit. Compan. 4 Aug. 115 (heading) The letters,..Of Larry Rip, (late of Ireland) at present in the city of New-York: to Mr. Dennis O'Bog..of Hard-Scrabble, in the county of Sligo.

1838 Indiana Jrnl. 1 Dec. The making of a road to the town of Hard-Scrabble, or the removal of the seat of justice from Loaferstown to Silverburg, &c. is often of sufficient importance to be thrust into the canvass for our national representation.

1882 New Albany (Indiana) Ledger 6 May A circuit or station may be named ‘Hard-scrabble’ or something else, but the preacher goes there and does his best for a year.

3. Barren, infertile, or unproductive terrain; rough or stony ground. Cf. hardpan n. 1.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > land > landscape > wild or uncultivated land > [noun] > barren land or desert

desert?c1225

bare1683

slate-land1733

barren1784

mesquite1834

badlands1850

hardscrabble1859

pindan1888

in (also up) the blue1963

wasteland1966

1859 Sioux City Iowa Eagle 21 May In farming in Iowa, there is no ‘hard scrabble’ where a person can scarcely find the soil for the rocks that cover it.

1870 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Daily Gaz. 16 Aug. Why are you not living on twenty acres of hard-scrabble?

1909 P. H. Epler Master Minds at Commonwealth's Heart 57 On the hard-scrabble of a comparatively thrifty New England farm..a baby boy came to add to a New England mother's burdens.

1984 G. Vanderhaeghe My Present Age (1986) xi. 164 Sam Waters is in a zinc bathtub in Topeka, sluicing and scrubbing a couple of acres of Kansas hardscrabble off his weary body.

2008 S. Miller State & Society 18th-cent. France v. 178 Peasants planted grain on the hardscrabble of hillsides and heaths.

B. adj. (chiefly attributive).

1. Involving desperate or strenuous effort; hard-fought.

ΚΠ

1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick lxxii. 356 While taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead whale's back.

1949 Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News 24 July 10/3 After a hard-scrabble battle..the Abilene Blue Sox owned a 6-4 victory over Lubbock and second place in the West Texas-New Mexico League pennant race.

1987 Washington Post (Nexis) 3 Nov. a23 A sizable number charge below $ 5,000 in tuition, serve a limited geographic constituency and wage a hard-scrabble struggle for survival.

2005 P. E. Tetlock Expert Polit. Judgment iii. 112 Most participants found it unlikely, given the hardscrabble struggle to gain high office, that the upper echelons of leadership would be populated with ‘idiots’.

2. Requiring or characterized by hard work and struggle, esp. as regards the cultivation of land or the obtaining of one's livelihood; engaged in such a struggle, esp. as part of a rural community. Of land: difficult to work or make productive, barren.

ΚΠ

1879 Zion's Herald 23 Oct. 338/4 He [sc. a preacher] was sent to a Hardscrabble circuit in punishment, and went to it like a hero.

1884 Warren (Pa.) Ledger 30 May This is the time when hard-scrabble lands bring a large price.

1904 Corona (Calif.) Courier 2 Jan. It seems strange that people are content to..eke out a hard-scrabble existence on rocky and barren soil, when the great West offers such opportunities to industrious husbandmen.

1914 Sat. Evening Post 22 Aug. 9/1 He was with me the morning I stumbled on to the oil seepage in that hard-scrabble Singleton-Ulistac pasture.

1949 Sat. Evening Post 30 Apr. 22/3 She was the daughter of a hard-scrabble rancher.

1972 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 26 Feb. 31/3 [Ulster] Catholics..enjoy the benefits of..an economy that may be hardscrabble but is still substantially more prosperous than the South's.

2009 A. Arluke & C. Killeen Inside Animal Hoarding v. 31 Scratching out a hardscrabble existence, the Hawkes family lived in a tumbledown, seven-room house..in the farming community of Badger Pocket.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	hardscrabble
释义	hardscrabblen.adj. Brit. /ˈhɑːdskrabl/, U.S. /ˈhɑrdˌskræb(ə)l/ Forms: see hard adj. and n. and scrabble n.¹ Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: hard adj., scrabble n.¹ Etymology: < hard adj. + scrabble n.¹With sense A. 2 compare earlier use in actual place names in the United States:1804 Weekly Visitor, or, Ladies' Misc. 7 Jan. 63/2 Married... At Hard Scrabble, (Virg.) on the 13th Dec. Mr. John Ward..to Miss Charity Darling.1804 J. Whitehouse Jrnl. 24 June in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1997) XI. 30 We encamped at a Priari [= prairie] called hard scrabble Priari. Originally and chiefly North American. A. n. 1. A vigorous effort, typically in difficult circumstances or in pursuit of a difficult objective; a struggle. Now somewhat rare.In early use probably not as a fixed collocation. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > manner of action > effort or exertion > [noun] > under difficulties strugglingc1386 struggle1692 hardscrabble1784 sprattle1824 1784 B. Bailey Let. 22 Jan. (Bodl., USPG C/Can. NS.1, No. 96) I take the liberty to trouble you with the information of my being after many a hard Scrable at last arrived. 1812 Salem Gaz. 29 May 2/3 Presidential Hard Scrabble! 1848 Pensacola (Florida) Gaz. 8 July These would only serve to give him false views of real life, and unfit him for the ‘hard scrabble’ by which he must achieve his purpose. 1854 S. Hale Let. 21 Nov. (1919) 7 By a well-organised hard-scrabble, Luc. and I get the breakfast things washed by nine o'clock. 1888 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Sentinel 25 May 4/4 Gen. Bragg has written a Fond du Lac friend that he will never again make a ‘hard-scrabble’ for a congressional nomination in the Second or any other district. 1914 Emporia (Kansas) Weekly Gaz. 23 Apr. It will take a ‘Hard Scrabble’ to make evil of the new move of our financial committee. 2014 www.sfreviews.net 3 June (O.E.D. Archive) The harsh realities of the adult world, with its war, violence, crime, terrorism, political duplicity, and never-ending hard-scrabble to keep your head above water. †2. As an invented name for a place remote from civilization or where living conditions are basic or difficult. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > space > distance > distance or farness > [noun] > distant parts > a remote or inaccessible place out-place1530 inaccessibilities1651 inaccessible1792 the back of beyond1816 hardscrabble1821 the back of Godspeed1827 out-of-the-way1971 1821 Lit. Compan. 4 Aug. 115 (heading) The letters,..Of Larry Rip, (late of Ireland) at present in the city of New-York: to Mr. Dennis O'Bog..of Hard-Scrabble, in the county of Sligo. 1838 Indiana Jrnl. 1 Dec. The making of a road to the town of Hard-Scrabble, or the removal of the seat of justice from Loaferstown to Silverburg, &c. is often of sufficient importance to be thrust into the canvass for our national representation. 1882 New Albany (Indiana) Ledger 6 May A circuit or station may be named ‘Hard-scrabble’ or something else, but the preacher goes there and does his best for a year. 3. Barren, infertile, or unproductive terrain; rough or stony ground. Cf. hardpan n. 1. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > land > landscape > wild or uncultivated land > [noun] > barren land or desert desert?c1225 bare1683 slate-land1733 barren1784 mesquite1834 badlands1850 hardscrabble1859 pindan1888 in (also up) the blue1963 wasteland1966 1859 Sioux City Iowa Eagle 21 May In farming in Iowa, there is no ‘hard scrabble’ where a person can scarcely find the soil for the rocks that cover it. 1870 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Daily Gaz. 16 Aug. Why are you not living on twenty acres of hard-scrabble? 1909 P. H. Epler Master Minds at Commonwealth's Heart 57 On the hard-scrabble of a comparatively thrifty New England farm..a baby boy came to add to a New England mother's burdens. 1984 G. Vanderhaeghe My Present Age (1986) xi. 164 Sam Waters is in a zinc bathtub in Topeka, sluicing and scrubbing a couple of acres of Kansas hardscrabble off his weary body. 2008 S. Miller State & Society 18th-cent. France v. 178 Peasants planted grain on the hardscrabble of hillsides and heaths. B. adj. (chiefly attributive). 1. Involving desperate or strenuous effort; hard-fought. ΚΠ 1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick lxxii. 356 While taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead whale's back. 1949 Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News 24 July 10/3 After a hard-scrabble battle..the Abilene Blue Sox owned a 6-4 victory over Lubbock and second place in the West Texas-New Mexico League pennant race. 1987 Washington Post (Nexis) 3 Nov. a23 A sizable number charge below $ 5,000 in tuition, serve a limited geographic constituency and wage a hard-scrabble struggle for survival. 2005 P. E. Tetlock Expert Polit. Judgment iii. 112 Most participants found it unlikely, given the hardscrabble struggle to gain high office, that the upper echelons of leadership would be populated with ‘idiots’. 2. Requiring or characterized by hard work and struggle, esp. as regards the cultivation of land or the obtaining of one's livelihood; engaged in such a struggle, esp. as part of a rural community. Of land: difficult to work or make productive, barren. ΚΠ 1879 Zion's Herald 23 Oct. 338/4 He [sc. a preacher] was sent to a Hardscrabble circuit in punishment, and went to it like a hero. 1884 Warren (Pa.) Ledger 30 May This is the time when hard-scrabble lands bring a large price. 1904 Corona (Calif.) Courier 2 Jan. It seems strange that people are content to..eke out a hard-scrabble existence on rocky and barren soil, when the great West offers such opportunities to industrious husbandmen. 1914 Sat. Evening Post 22 Aug. 9/1 He was with me the morning I stumbled on to the oil seepage in that hard-scrabble Singleton-Ulistac pasture. 1949 Sat. Evening Post 30 Apr. 22/3 She was the daughter of a hard-scrabble rancher. 1972 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 26 Feb. 31/3 [Ulster] Catholics..enjoy the benefits of..an economy that may be hardscrabble but is still substantially more prosperous than the South's. 2009 A. Arluke & C. Killeen Inside Animal Hoarding v. 31 Scratching out a hardscrabble existence, the Hawkes family lived in a tumbledown, seven-room house..in the farming community of Badger Pocket. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.adj.1784
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