harvest
harvest
Pronunciation
IPA phonetic spelling: /ˈhɑːrvɪst/
Har-: /hɑːr/ - /h/ (voiceless glottal fricative) + /ɑː/ (open back unrounded vowel) + /r/ (voiced alveolar approximant)
-vest: /vɪst/ - /v/ (voiced labiodental fricative) + /ɪ/ (near-close near-front unrounded vowel) + /s/ (voiceless alveolar fricative) + /t/ (voiceless alveolar plosive)
Word Form Variations
Noun:
Singular: harvest
Plural: harvests
Verb:
Base form: harvest
Third-person singular present: harvests
Present participle: harvesting
Past simple: harvested
Past participle: harvested
Definitions, Synonyms and Antonyms
Noun
Definition: The act or process of gathering ripe crops, such as grains, fruits, or vegetables, from the fields or trees. This often involves cutting, picking, or digging them up for collection and storage.
Synonyms: yield, crop, ingathering, reaping
Antonyms: planting, sowing, cultivation (in the sense of preparing for harvest)
Definition: The season or time of year when crops are gathered. This period is often associated with a culmination of agricultural efforts and a time of abundance.
Synonyms: autumn (in some contexts), harvest time, crop season
Antonyms: spring (in the context of planting), dormant season
Definition: The amount of produce or crop gathered in a season. This refers to the total yield obtained from a particular area or during a specific period.
Synonyms: yield, crop, produce, bounty, output
Antonyms: deficit, shortage, famine
Verb
Definition: To gather (a crop or produce) from the fields or trees. This involves the active collection of mature agricultural products.
Synonyms: reap, gather, collect, pick, crop, glean
Antonyms: plant, sow, cultivate, grow
Definition: To obtain or collect something for use, especially in a systematic or organized way. This can apply to non-agricultural resources or data.
Synonyms: collect, gather, obtain, accumulate, extract, glean
Antonyms: disperse, scatter, disseminate, waste, discard
Examples of Use
Books: "The small, isolated community depended entirely on the annual harvest of wild rice from the nearby wetlands for their winter provisions." (From a novel describing a survivalist community, no specific source available)
Newspapers: "Farmers across the region are reporting a bumper harvest of corn this year, thanks to consistent rainfall and favorable temperatures." (The Daily Herald, July 2024)
Online Publications: "Scientists are working on new techniques to harvest kinetic energy from ocean waves, turning the immense power of the sea into clean electricity." (renewableenergy.org, August 2024)
Entertainment Mediums (Film): In the movie Interstellar, the protagonists embark on a mission to find a new habitable planet as Earth's resources dwindle due to blights affecting various crops, leading to a desperate need for a new harvest. (Christopher Nolan, 2014)
Entertainment Platforms (Video Games): "Players in Stardew Valley spend much of their in-game time planting, tending, and ultimately harvesting crops to earn money and complete community objectives." (ConcernedApe, 2016)
General Public Discourse: "After weeks of intense campaigning, the political party is hoping to harvest a significant number of votes in the upcoming general election." (Heard on a political commentary podcast, November 2024)
General Public Discourse: "The local food bank organized a community drive to harvest excess produce from backyard gardens, ensuring no food goes to waste." (Announced at a community meeting, September 2024)
10 Quotes Using Harvest
"What you sow, you harvest." (Bible, Galatians 6:7)
"As a man harvests, so does he sow." (Traditional Proverb)
"He that will harvest must plant." (African Proverb)
"You must give up to harvest." (French Proverb)
"A man reaps what he sows: what he sows in his mind, he harvests in his body." (Edgar Cayce)
"We harvest what we plant, so plant good seeds." (Unknown)
"Life is a continuous process of sowing and harvesting." (Unknown)
"When you harvest your hopes, do not harvest your dreams." (African Proverb)
"You cannot harvest what you do not plant." (Unknown)
"If you do not sow in the spring, you will not harvest in the autumn." (Irish Proverb)
Etymology
The word "harvest" has a fascinating history that takes us back to Old English.
Originally, in Old English, the word was "hærfest". But here's the interesting part: its first main meaning wasn't just about gathering crops, it actually referred to the season of autumn itself. Think of it like how we use "spring" or "winter" today to mean a whole season. So, "hærfest" was the period of the year between roughly August and November.
This Old English word came from an even older root in Proto-Germanic (*harbitas), which also gave us words for "autumn" in other Germanic languages like German ("Herbst") and Dutch ("herfst"). Going back even further, it's connected to a very old Indo-European root *(kerp-) which meant "to gather, pluck, or harvest." This root is also linked to words like the Greek "karpos" (meaning "fruit") and the Latin "carpere" (meaning "to pluck").
Over time, especially around the 13th century in Middle English, the meaning of "harvest" started to narrow. As the word "autumn" (which came from French) became more common for the season, "harvest" began to specifically refer to the time when crops are gathered, then to the act of gathering them, and finally to the crops themselves that were gathered.
So, in a nutshell, "harvest" started as the name for the autumn season, then evolved to describe the important activity of gathering crops that happened during that season, and eventually, the collected bounty itself.
Phrases + Idioms Containing Harvest
Harvest moon: The full moon nearest the autumnal equinox, known for its brightness which traditionally aided farmers working late to gather crops.
Reap what you sow/harvest what you sow: A proverb meaning that the consequences of one's actions will eventually come back to them.
Harvest of souls: (Often used in a religious or metaphorical context) The gathering or conversion of many people.
Harvest festival: A celebration held to mark the culmination of the harvest season, often with food and communal gatherings.
To harvest the fruits of one's labor: To enjoy the positive results or rewards that come from hard work.
Bring in the harvest: To successfully complete the gathering of crops.
A bumper harvest: An exceptionally large or successful yield of crops.
To harvest data/information: To systematically collect and compile information, often from various sources.
Harvesting sunshine: (Figurative) Making the most of good weather or opportunities.
Early harvest: An initial or premature collection of something, often referring to a portion of a larger yield or outcome.
Vocabulary-Based Stories from SEA
Source Information
Definition of harvest from The Academic Glossary at Self Exploration Academy, a Urikville Press Publication. © All rights reserved.
