20kWEB: Origin of the word Dastard. Etymology of the word Dastard. Etymology Dictionary.

DASTARD, a cowardly fellow. (Scand.; with F. suffix) 'Dastarde or dullarde, duribuctius;' Prompt. Parv. p. 114. 'Dastarde, estourdy, butarin;' Palsgrave. 1. The suffix is the usual F. -ard, as in dull-ard, slugg-ard; a suffix of Germanic origin, and related to Goth. hardus, hard. In many words it takes a bad sense; see Brachet, Introd. to Etym. Dict. sect. 196. 2. The stem dast- answers to E. dazed, and the t appears to be due to a past participial form.—Icel. dæstr, exhausted, breathless, pp. of dæsa, to groan, lose breath from exhaustion; closely related to Icel. dasaðr, exhausted, weary, pp. of dasask, to become exhausted, a reflexive verb standing for dasa-sik, to daze oneself. Another past participial form is Icel. dasinn, commonly shortened to dasi, a lazy fellow. Thus the word is to be divided das-t-ard, where das- is the base, -t- the past participial form, and -ard the suffix. The word actually occurs in O. Dutch without the t, viz. in O. Du. dasaert, daasaardt, a fool; Oudemans. On the other hand, we find Swed. dial. däst, weary (Rietz). See further under Daze. ¶ The usual derivation from A.S. adastrigan, to frighten, is absurd; I find no such word; it was probably invented by Somner to account (wrongly) for the very word dastard in question. Der. dastard-ly, dastard-li-ness. [†]

ADDENDA

Rietz gives Swed. dial. dasa, to lie idle, daska, to be lazy, dasig, idle. Godefroy gives O.F. daser, to dream.

Etymology Dictionary

Origin of the word DASTARD. Etymology of the word DASTARD.