Harrowing Experience

Jim from Charlevoix asked about the origin of the cliché, a harrowing experience.

The harrow was an early agricultural tool designed to break up clods of earth, turn the soil over, extirpate roots and weeds, and generally prepare the ground for planting. It was a heavy wooden or metal frame set with iron teeth and dragged by an ox or work horse—later, by a tractor.

By extension, a harrowing experience was one that caused great distress and emotional laceration, something that tore you up emotionally.

Harrow was also used as the name of a hinge, as a cricket term, as a synonym for castration, as the name of a defensive gate, as a gold-mining separation device, and as a diagonal arrangement of soldiers or birds in flight.

SIDEBAR: The Harrowing of Hell

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A Harrowing Experience

Harrowing is a powerful adjective. Something harrowing shreds the feelings. It is deeply distressing and agonizingly painful.

The word comes from Scandinavian and Dutch terms that meant a rake, but not the household type used to gather up leaves. Instead, it was an industrial-strength agricultural tool, usually consisting of a heavy frame set with iron teeth or tines. It was used to break up clods of earth, crushing them and pulverizing them. Later versions included the disc harrow and the chain harrow.

Thus, the metaphorical extension to a person’s feelings and psyche packs a powerful impact.

Theologically, the Harrowing of Hell was a common theme in early Christian poetry and medieval drama, though it came from a different harrow. It referred to Christ’s descent into hell between his crucifixion and resurrection, a time in which he raided hell and released its inhabitants. Although the Descent into Hell is mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed and in New Testament sources, the Catholic Encyclopedia points to the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus as the primary influence on British religious literature.

Sir Walter Scott used the word in his Lady of the Lake:

Yet, witness every quaking limb,

My sunken pulse, mine eye-balls dim,

My soul with harrowing anguish torn,

This for my Chieftain have I borne!

Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Arbutus Press
or at Amazon.com

Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.

Visit the Senior Corner at http://seniors.tcnet.org