-ard

suffix.
1 forming nouns in depreciatory senses (drunkard; sluggard).
2 forming nouns in other senses (bollard; Spaniard; wizard).
Etymology: ME & OF f. G -hard hardy (in proper names)

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\\ə(r)d or, in a few loan words from French (as “communard”), |ärd or |ȧd\ noun suffix also -art \\ə(r)t\ (-s)

Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German -hart (in personal names such as Gērhart Gerard); akin to Old English heard hard — more at hard

: one that is characterized by performing some action, possessing some quality, or being associated with some thing especially conspicuously or excessively

braggart

drunkard

dullard

pollard

sluggard

stinkard

wizard

: a large one of its kind

staggard

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a suffix forming nouns that denote persons who regularly engage in an activity, or who are characterized in a certain way, as indicated by the stem; now usually pejorative: coward; dullard; drunkard; wizard.

Also, -art.

[ME < OF, prob. extracted from Frankish compound personal names; cf. OHG Adalhart (F Alard), Bernhart (F Bernard), with 2d element -hart lit., strong, hardy, HARD (c. OE -heard in names), often merely as intensifier of quality denoted in 1st element.]

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suffix forming nouns such as bollard, wizard

■ forming nouns having a depreciatory sense

drunkard | dullard

Origin:

Middle English and Old French, from German -hard ‘hard, hardy’

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-ard, suffix

a. OF. -ard, -art, a. German -hart, -hard, ‘hardy,’ often forming part of personal names as OHG. Regin-hart Raynard, Ebur-hart Everard; also in MHG. and Dutch a formative of common nouns, generally pejorative, whence adopted in the Rom. langs. Used in Fr. as masculine formative, intensive, augmentative, and often pejorative, cf. bastard, couard, canard, mallard, mouchard, vieillard. It appeared in ME. in words from OFr., as bastard, coward, mallard, wizard, also in names of things, as placard, standard (flag); and became at length a living formative of English derivatives, as in buzzard, drunkard, laggard, sluggard, with sense of ‘one who does to excess, or who does what is discreditable.’ In some words it has taken the place of an earlier -ar, -er of the simple agent, as in bragger, braggar, braggard, stander, standard (tree). In some it is now written -art, as braggart; in cockade, orig. cockard, corrupted to -ade.