{"id":2540,"date":"2011-11-01T14:42:45","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T18:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/?p=2540"},"modified":"2019-08-30T16:49:12","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:49:12","slug":"a-harrowing-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/a-harrowing-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"A Harrowing Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

The word harrow<\/A> has two definitions:
\n1. To break up and level (soil or land) with a harrow.
\n2. To inflict great distress or torment on.<\/p>\n

We often refer to a dangerous or stressful incident as a “harrowing<\/a> experience.”<\/p>\n

As for the literal meaning, though — harrow<\/i> is both the action of breaking up ground and the tool used to do it — I think that for years I had mistakenly been picturing a hoe<\/A>.<\/p>\n

Actually, a harrow<\/i> is this terrifying web of spikes:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Hey, we’re Manhattan<\/i> Prep — what do we know about farming?)<\/p>\n

So, a harrowing<\/i> experience makes you feel as though someone dragged that<\/i> over you! Yikes.<\/p>\n

A similarly horrifying metaphor is found in the word excoriate<\/A>, which we use to mean “to criticize harshly,” but which literally means “to run so hard as to wear the skin off of.” You could certainly excoriate<\/i> someone with a harrow<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Also, here’s something interesting — the use of harrow<\/i> as a metaphor is first attributed to Shakespeare, in Hamlet<\/i>:<\/p>\n

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
\nWould harrow<\/strong> up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
\nMake thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Harrow<\/i> is also related to the verb harry<\/a>:
\n1. To disturb or distress by or as if by repeated attacks; harass. See Synonyms at harass.
\n2. To raid, as in war; sack or pillage.<\/p>\n

According to Etymonline<\/a>, harry<\/i> comes from the Old English hergian<\/i> (“make war, lay waste, ravage, plunder”), the word used in the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” for what the Vikings did to England. So, when you say that you’re feeling harried<\/i> due to all your responsibilities, you’re probably exaggerating a bit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You can get a harrow like this one here<\/A>.<\/p>\n

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, and that we here at Manhattan Prep are making the GRE a less harrowing<\/i> experience for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The word harrow has two definitions: 1. To break up and level (soil or land) with a harrow. 2. To inflict great distress or torment on. We often refer to a dangerous or stressful incident as a “harrowing experience.” As for the literal meaning, though — harrow is both the action of breaking up ground […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-study"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12526,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions\/12526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2540"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}