There's an expression "hard by", which I understand to mean "nearby", "close by". I don't know if it could be called an idiom, but it baffled me when I first encountered it in the translation of Historia Calamitatum (“the castle of Corbeil, which is hard by the city of Paris”). Back then I thought it an archaism, but since then I've encountered it in modern contexts, e.g. “In a bar hard by P.P. Layouts, Richard Hnatt sat sipping a Tequila Sour” (Philip Dick).
What's the origin of this expression? Etymonline mentions:
O.H.G. harto "extremely, very,"
in the etymology of 'hard', and I can see some connection, but it's vague.
Also, aside its rarity, can it be used interchangeably with "close by", or is there a small semantic difference I can't percieve?
Best Answer
Hard by can be used both as a preposition and an adverb. The OED’s earliest recorded use as the former is from 1526. Its meaning is ‘Close by; in close proximity to; close to, very near to’ and it is described as somewhat archaic.
As an adverb, it is first recorded nine years later, with the similar meaning ‘In close local proximity; close by, very near’.
The adverb hard can mean ‘In close proximity, of time or place’ on its own, and is first recorded in that sense in the fifteenth century, but such use may now be infrequent.