Farming Harrow vs. Distressful Harrowing

Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant. This is Ryan Farrell from West Bolton, Vermont. How are you guys?

Hi, Ryan. Welcome to the show. We’re doing great.

Both my parents grew up on a farm and, you know, I’m the first person, first generation to not be a farmer. But I still have a little bit of that knowledge that you just kind of learn along the way. And I was thinking about that fact because I was explaining to my kids one time about a harrow. You know, you got plows and tedders and you got harrows.

And the job of a harrow is to break up the dirt clods. And I was thinking to myself that if I was a dirt clod and I went through a harrow, the farmer came along with a harrow, you know, a spring-tooth harrow, a disc harrow, whatever, I would get all beat up and it would be kind of a harrowing experience.

And that made me wonder, is there a relationship between the noun of a harrow and the adjective of a harrow?

Yes. Thanks for calling.

But wait, there’s more.

It’s the origin of it. It really is. The idea is that this tool, which has disks or spikes, breaks up the soil. It pulls up roots and rocks. You know, you’re preparing the soil for agriculture, but if you can imagine that happening to you, it would literally cut you. It would literally break you up or break you, just as the soil is broken by harrow.

So that is why it’s called harrowing. Absolutely.

Which came first?

The farming tool, the harrow, yeah.

There is another harrowing in English, but it’s rarely used. And even though it’s negative and on the surface seems like it could come from the same root as the other harrow or harrowing, it doesn’t. It’s related to the word harry, meaning to harass or chase or attack, bother, annoy, that sort of thing.

But an older use of it is to raid. And in religious context and religious circles, they probably would know of the harrowing of hell, which is a time when Jesus was said to plunder hell and rob it of all of its souls and take them back.

But that is a different harrowing. It’s not the same harrowing. Even though they’re close and even though it’s like this kind of moment in both of them, they’re not the same.

English is just, you can’t trust English. You really can’t.

We have yet another harrow for you.

Because an old word for harrow is hearse. And that’s where we get to rehearse. It’s literally to rake over.

Whoa.

Going over something again and again. Rake over, turn over.

How about them apples?

That’s not at all what I was expecting you to say today, Martha.

Well, I’m full of surprises.

Well, that’s awesome.

Thank you guys so much. I love your show. I listen to it so often, and I’m finally getting my kids into it, too.

Oh, wonderful.

That’s great.

Yeah, we have a lot of kid listeners, a lot of families listening together. And we appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today, Ryan.

Thank you both.

All right, be well.

Thanks for calling.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

I love that.

So rehearse means to rake over, to re-rake.

Yeah.

That’s very good.

I love that.

Over and over again.

Etymology.

Who knew?

We should do a show about it.

Oh, that’s a great idea.

Maybe we could start with having folks call us, 877-929-9673, or send your stories about language to words@waywordradio.org.