different between wharf vs tharf

English

Etymology

From Middle English wharf, from Old English hwearf (“heap, embankment, wharf”); related to Old English hweorfan (“to turn”), Old Saxon hwerf (whence German Werft), Dutch werf, Old High German hwarb (“a turn”), hwerban (“to turn”), Old Norse hvarf (“circle”), and Ancient Greek ?????? (karpós, “wrist”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: wôrf, IPA^(key): /w??f/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: wôf, IPA^(key): /w??f/
• (without the wine–whine merger) enPR: hwôrf, IPA^(key): /hw??f/.

In New Zealand, even those who distinguish wine and whine are likely to pronounce as /w??f/.

• Rhymes: -??(?)f

Noun

wharf (plural wharves or wharfs)

1. A man-made landing place for ships on a shore or river bank.
   • 1834-1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

     Commerce pushes its wharves into the sea.

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott

     Out upon the wharfs they came, / Knight and burgher, lord and dame.

2. The bank of a river, or the shore of the sea.

Synonyms

• (landing place): dock; quay

Hyponyms

• (landing place): jetty; pier; staithe, staith (Northern England)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

wharf (third-person singular simple present wharfs, present participle wharfing, simple past and past participle wharfed)

1. (transitive) To secure by a wharf.
2. (transitive) To place on a wharf.

See also

• dock

Middle English

Alternative forms

• wherf, wharfe, warrf, wharghfe

Etymology

From Old English hwearf.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?arf/

Noun

wharf (plural wharves)

1. wharf

Derived terms

• wharfage

Descendants

• English: wharf
• Scots: wharf

References

• “wharf, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-12-12.

English

Etymology

From Middle English therf, from Old English þeorf (“unleavened, fresh, skim”), from Proto-Germanic *þerbaz (“unleavened, simple”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)terbh-, *(s)trebh- (“rigid, stiff, tight”). Cognate with German derb (“rough, coarse, rude”), Old Frisian therve, Middle Dutch derf, Middle High German derp, Icelandic þjarfur (“unleavened”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??(?)f

Adjective

tharf (comparative more tharf, superlative most tharf)

1. (obsolete) Unleavened.
2. (obsolete) Stiff, unsocial, rough in manner.

Derived terms

• tharf-cake
• tharcake
• tharfish

References

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language

Middle English

Alternative forms

• darf, þarf

Etymology

From Old English þearf, first and third person singular indicative of þurfan (“to be in need, have need of, need to, be required to, be obliged to, owe”), from Proto-Germanic *þurfan?, *þurban?, *þerban? (“may, need to, be allowed to”), from Proto-Indo-European *terp-, *trep- (“to saturate, enjoy”). Cognate with Dutch durf (“(I) dare”) (infinitive durven), German darf (“(I) am allowed to”) (infinitive dürfen), Swedish tarva (“to require”), Icelandic þarf (“(I) need”) (infinitive þurfa).

Verb

tharf

1. first/third-person singular present indicative of tharen

Descendants

• English: thair
• Scots: thair

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *þarb?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??rf/
• (late Old Saxon) IPA^(key): [ð?rf]

Noun

tharf f (genitive tharvo)

1. need, lack, necessity

Declension

Related terms

• tharfag