harm

See also: Harm

English

Etymology

From Middle English harm, herm, from Old English hearm (“harm; hurt; injury; evil; grief; affliction; pain; injurious speech; calumny; insult”), from Proto-Germanic *harmaz (“harm; shame; pain”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱormo- (“suffering; pain”).

Cognate with German Harm (“grief; affliction”), Swedish harm (“resentment; indignation”), Icelandic harmur (“sorrow; mourning”). Related also to Dutch haren (“to sharpen a scythe”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /hɑɹm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hɑːm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)m

Noun

harm (countable and uncountable, plural harms)

1. 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 balls. Especially if they get revenge and bring out a bazooka and blast your head off.

   No harm came to my possessions.

2. emotional or figurative hurt

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

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 13, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.

3. detriment; misfortune.

   I wish him no harm.

4. That which causes injury, damage, or loss.
   • William Shakespeare

     We, ignorant of ourselves, / Beg often our own harms.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "harm": bodily, physical, environmental, emotional, financial, serious, irreparable, potential, long-term, short-term, permanent, lasting, material, substantial.

Translations

injury; hurt; damage; detriment; misfortune

• Afar: please add this translation if you can
• Afrikaans: skade
• Albanian: ^{(please verify)} dëm m
• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: ^{(please verify)} ضَرَر‏‎ m (ḍarar)
• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: վնաս (hy) (vnas)
• Assamese: please add this translation if you can
• Asturian: dañu m
• Aymara: please add this translation if you can
• Azeri: zərər (az)
• Bashkir: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: шко́да f (škóda)
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Breton: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: вреда (bg) f (vreda), пакост (bg) f (pakost)
• Catalan: dany (ca) m
• Chamorro: please add this translation if you can
• Cherokee: please add this translation if you can
• Chichewa: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 損害 (zh), 损害 (zh) (sǔnhài)

• Corsican: please add this translation if you can
• Czech: poškození n
• Danish: skade (da), skade (da)
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: schade (nl) m
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: ^{(please verify)} kahju
• Ewe: please add this translation if you can
• Extremaduran: please add this translation if you can
• Faroese: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: vahinko (fi)
• French: mal (fr) m, tort (fr) m, dommage (fr) m
• Friulian: please add this translation if you can
• Galician: dano m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Schaden (de) m
• Greek: βλάβη (el) f (vlávi)
• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hausa: please add this translation if you can
• Hawaiian: māino, pōpilikia
• Hebrew: נזק‏‎ m (nézek)
• Hindi: ^{(please verify)} नुक़सान m (nuqsān), ^{(please verify)} हानि f (hāni)
• Ido: domajo (io), nocuro (io)
• Igbo: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: please add this translation if you can
• Interlingua: please add this translation if you can
• Interlingue: damage
• Irish: dochar m, díobháil f, anachain (ga) f, urchóid f
• Italian: danno (it) m, male (it) m, ferita (it) f
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 損害 (ja) (そんがい, songai)
• Javanese: please add this translation if you can

• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: ^{(please verify)} អំពើអាក្រក់ (’âmpeu’akrâk)
• Korean: 해 (ko) (hae)
• Latvian: bojājums m, ievainojums m, kaitējums m
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Luganda: please add this translation if you can
• Luxembourgish: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Malay: mudarat, keburukan
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Marathi: ईजा (ījā)
• Mirandese: ^{(please verify)} danho m
• Novial: please add this translation if you can
• Occitan: dam m
• Old English: ^{(please verify)} hearm
• Old Saxon: ^{(please verify)} harm
• Oriya: please add this translation if you can
• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: آسیب‏‎ (fa) (âsib)
• Polish: szkoda (pl) f, krzywda (pl) f
• Portuguese: dano (pt) m, mal (pt) m
• Punjabi: please add this translation if you can
• Rajasthani: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} pagubă (ro) f, ^{(please verify)} daună (ro) f, ^{(please verify)} prejudiciu (ro) n; ^{(please verify)} rău (ro) n, ^{(please verify)} nedreptate (ro) f
• Russian: вред (ru) m (vred), уще́рб (ru) m (uščérb), поврежде́ние (ru) n (povreždénije)
• Samoan: please add this translation if you can
• Sanskrit: please add this translation if you can
• Sardinian: please add this translation if you can
• Scots: skaith
• Scottish Gaelic: ^{(please verify)} aimhleas m, ^{(please verify)} baoghal m, ^{(please verify)} coire m, ^{(please verify)} ciùrradh m, ^{(please verify)} cron m, ^{(please verify)} olc m, ^{(please verify)} milleadh m, ^{(please verify)} dochann m, ^{(please verify)} coire f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: повреда f; штета f

  Roman: povreda (sh) f; šteta (sh) f

• Sicilian: firita f
• Sindhi: please add this translation if you can
• Sinhalese: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: poškodenie n
• Spanish: daño (es) m
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} హాని (te) (hāni)
• Turkish: zarar (tr), hasar (tr), ziyan (tr), incinme (tr)
• Ukrainian: шко́да (uk) f (škóda)
• Urdu: ^{(please verify)} نقصان‏‎ m (nuqsān)
• Uyghur: please add this translation if you can
• Venetian: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: please add this translation if you can
• Wolof: please add this translation if you can
• Xhosa: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: please add this translation if you can
• Yoruba: please add this translation if you can
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

that which causes injury, damage, or loss

• Bulgarian: зло (bg) n (zlo)
• Finnish: vahinko (fi), haitta (fi)

• Italian: danno (it) m
• Portuguese: mal (pt) m

Verb

harm (third-person singular simple present harms, present participle harming, simple past and past participle harmed)

1. To cause injury to another; to hurt; to cause damage to something.

Translations

cause damage

• Afrikaans: beskadig
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: վնասել (hy) (vnasel)
• Bulgarian: увреждам (bg) (uvreždam)
• Cherokee: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 損害 (zh), 损害 (zh) (sǔnhài)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: schaden (nl), beschadigen (nl)
• Faroese: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: vahingoittaa (fi)
• French: nuire à, faire du mal à
• German: schaden (de)

  Alemannic German: schade

• Greek: βλάπτω (el) (vlápto)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Icelandic: please add this translation if you can
• Ido: domajar (io)
• Interlingue: nocer
• Irish: déan dochar do, déan díobháil do
• Italian: danneggiare (it)

• Japanese: 害する (gai-suru), そこなう (ja) (sokonau), 痛める (ita-meru)
• Khmer: បង្ករអន្តរាយ (bângkârô’ntâréay)
• Latin: noceō (la) m
• Latvian: kaitēt, bojāt
• Maore Comorian: uhodza
• Ngazidja Comorian: udhuru
• Polish: krzywdzić (pl)
• Portuguese: ferir (pt), fazer mal, afligir (pt), machucar (pt)
• Romanian: vătăma (ro), strica (ro), dăuna (ro)
• Russian: вреди́ть (ru) impf (vredítʹ), повреди́ть (ru) pf (povredítʹ), навреди́ть (ru) pf (navredítʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: mill, cuir cron air
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: оштетити, повредити / повриједити, шкодити

  Roman: oštetiti (sh), povrediti (sh) / povrijediti (sh), škoditi (sh)

• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Slovene: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: dañar (es)
• Swedish: skada (sv)
• Telugu: హాని (te) (hāni)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: please add this translation if you can

Derived terms

Terms derived from the noun or verb harm

• do no harm
• harmer
• harmless

• harm's way
• self-harm
• unharmed

Anagrams

• Hmar, mahr

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Icelandic

Noun

harm

1. indefinite accusative singular of harmur

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Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhaɾˠəmˠ/

Noun

harm

1. h-prothesized form of arm

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Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *harmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱormo- (“suffering, pain”). Compare Old Norse harmr, Old English hearm, Modern German Harm, Avestan fšarǝma, Middle Persian šarm, Modern Persian شرم‏ (šarm).

Noun

harm m

1. harm

Descendants

• Middle Low German: harm, herm