hardly

hardly pronunciation

/HARD-lee/

Meaning

Hardly means you just barely scraped by on something. In redneck and Appalachian talk it shows up a lot with an extra negative: "I can't hardly see" or "I couldn't hardly believe it." Schoolteachers call that a double negative. Folks on the porch still say it when they mean barely can. Alone or in "can't hardly," the idea is the same: almost not.

How folks use it

• “I hardly slept a wink with that dog barking all night.”
• “We can't hardly keep up with the bills since the plant cut hours.”

Origin and etymology

Old English hardy/hardly once meant vigorously or with difficulty, then shifted toward "not easily" and finally "barely." The Southern and Appalachian "can't hardly" pattern keeps older English double-negative habits that formal writing later tried to scrub out. Michigan Public's language show notes that combining not with hardly softens a full negative into "just barely."

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