Harbor

How to spell harbor

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce harbor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does harbor mean?

1. nounA sheltered area of water near the coast where ships can dock or anchor safely.
2. verbTo give shelter to a person or thing, or to hold a feeling or idea privately.

Harbor in a sentence

• noun

  The fishing boats returned to the harbor before the storm hit.

• verb

  Old pipes can harbor bacteria if they are never cleaned.

• noun

  A row of restaurants lines the edge of the harbor.

• verb

  She continued to harbor doubts about the new contract.

Where does harbor come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word goes back to the Old English herebeorg, which literally meant 'army shelter' or 'lodging', built from here meaning 'army, host' and beorg meaning 'shelter, refuge, protection'. The original sense was simply a safe place to stay, which is why the verb still means to give shelter to something. Over time the noun narrowed to the specific idea of a sheltered stretch of water where ships could lie safe from storms. The Germanic roots are shared with related words across northern Europe, and the same beorg element for protection survives faintly in old place names. The American spelling drops the British 'u' of 'harbour', following Noah Webster's nineteenth century preference for trimming silent vowels, which is exactly the letter that trips writers switching between dialects.

How the word is built

• harbor (single root, from Old English herebeorg: army shelter); no separable affixes

British and American spelling

Harbor is the American spelling. British English spells it harbour.