Harrowing
Ken Burns & Lynne Novick’s The Vietnam War I felt was “harrowing.”
[image error]
[image error]
What does the word harrowing mean?
[image error]
source:
In farming this is a harrow.
A device consisting of a heavy framework having several disks or teeth in a row, which is dragged across ploughed land to smooth or break up the soil, to remove weeds or cover seeds;
A harrowing documentary feels like it’s doing this to you?
A harrowing experience is painful, but it breaks up your clods.
The etymology drifts back into the mists of Old Norse before dissolving away into Proto-Indo-European and Old Persian, but it may have something to do with “harvest”
Icelandic
EtymologyFrom Proto-Germanic*harjōną (see also East Frisian ferheerje, German verheeren(“to harry, devastate”)) Swedish härja(“ravage, harry”)), from Proto-Germanic*harjaz(“army”) (see also Old English here, West Frisian hear, Dutch heer, German Heer), from Proto-Indo-European*koryos (compare Middle Irish cuire(“army”), Lithuanian kãrias(“army; war”), Old Church Slavonic кара(kara, “strife”), Ancient Greek κοίρανος(koíranos, “chief, commander”), Old Persian [script needed](kāra, “army”)).
As a boy, Winston Churchill went to a school called Harrow:
[image error]
which he found to be a harrowing experience. Churchill had many harrowing experiences. He was in combat, for one. That’s a famous harrow. Having polio is harrowing.
[image error]
UNITED STATES – SEPTEMBER 27: President Franklin D. Roosevelt leaves his home at 49 East 65th Street for a short visit to his family estate at Hyde Park, north of New York City. This photograph is unusual in that FDR’s leg braces are clearly visible. (Photo by Martin Mcevilly/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
Childbirth has got to be harrowing, as is growing up on the frontier.
[image error]
You wouldn’t wish any harrowing experiences on anybody, but it seems like all great leaders had been through a harrowing or two.
