Such a common word used so little! It’s a word from Germanic sources, but before that seems to be the conjecture of many Masters’ theses — Greek? Sanskrit? Please notice that in chapter 15, JRRT uses hard in its adverbial manner! I get excited about things like that.

• 1.047 but a hard rat-tat on the hobbit’s beautiful green door.
• 3.031 and they found it hard to leave.
• 4.002 It was a hard path
• 4.051 bumped his head on hard rock,
• 5.010 when he listened hard,
• 5.041 until he could think of a really hard one.
• 5.054 Then he thought the time had come to ask something hard
• 5.055 Grinds hard stones to meal;
• 5.119 but it was hard to believe
• 5.128 hard stone,
• 6.100 He slept curled up on the hard rock
• 8.089 and nipped hard at the nose that stuck out.
• 8.089 and hard.
• 9.023 I shall be hard at work tonight
• 9.061 by a little jutting cape of hard rock.
• 12.074 and hard gems.
• 13.055 A hard climb,
• 14.039 and he had a hard task to govern the people
• 15.026 So now they began to labour hard
• 17.036 but they will soon be hard put to it.
• 17.044 hard on the heels of Dain.
• 18.011 and a hard skull.