Meaning: hard

Illustrative Context

It was very hard. When he bit it he broke his tooth.

Target Sense

• The most generic adjective for hard as the basic antonym of soft.
• The target sense is the literal one of a solid object resistant to being cut, damaged or compressed.
• Beware of the common extension from (literally) ‘hard’ to the sense of ‘difficult’, as in the polysemy of the English lexeme hard. This is not necessarily an issue in a language that shares the same extension as English, provided that the lexeme in question remains the default term in basic vocabulary also for the literal resistance of a solid object. So the target lexeme in French is dur, which also has both senses (literal ‘hard’ as well as ‘difficult’). Avoid, however, terms that apply predominantly to the extension sense of ‘difficult’. The target lexeme in German is therefore not schwer (‘difficult’), but literal hart.
• Avoid more morphologically complex terms that add an explicit sense of change of state, i.e. terms literally equivalent to hardened, except when a lexeme is only etymologically complex, and has lost that originally change of state sense to become the default adjective in the basic vocabulary.
• The target sense is the literal, neutral one of hard of a solid object. Avoid additional lexemes that are primarily figurative extensions and/or value judgements, e.g. uncompromising, strict, unfeeling, unbreakable, tough.
• Avoid intensifying (or qualifying) terms for especially hard, or narrower terms for hard in one particular sense or dimension, e.g. rigid, unbending.
• The neutral register term from the basic vocabulary: avoid colloquial, technical or more elevated terms, e.g. resistant, rigid, etc..