hazard

Etymology

From Old French hasart (“a game of dice”) (noun), hasarder (verb), probably from Arabic اَلزَّهْر‎ (az-zahr, “the dice”). Compare Spanish azar, Portuguese azar.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhæzɚd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhazəd/

Noun

hazard (countable and uncountable, plural hazards)

1. (historical) A type of game played with dice. [from 14th c.]
2. Chance. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Richard III, act 5, scene 4:

     I will stand the hazard of the die.

   • 2006 May 20, John Patterson, The Guardian:

     I see animated movies are now managing, by hazard or design, to reflect our contemporary reality more accurately than live-action movies.

3. The chance of suffering harm; danger, peril, risk of loss. [from 16th c.]

   He encountered the enemy at the hazard of his reputation and life.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Rogers

     Men are led on from one stage of life to another in a condition of the utmost hazard.

   • 1599, Wm. Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar:

     Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark! The storm is up and all is on the hazard.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

     He then launched forth into a panegyric on Allworthy's goodness; into the highest encomiums on his friendship; and concluded by saying, he should never forgive his brother for having put the place which he bore in that friendship to a hazard.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎:

     If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the ever more expensive and then universally known killing hazards of gasoline cars:  […] .

   • 2009 December 27, Barbara Ellen, The Guardian:

     Quite apart from the gruesome road hazards, snow is awful even when you don't have to travel.

4. An obstacle or other feature which causes risk or danger; originally in sports, and now applied more generally. [from 19th c.]

   The video game involves guiding a character on a skateboard past all kinds of hazards.

5. (golf) A sand or water obstacle on a golf course.
6. (billiards) The act of potting a ball, whether the object ball (winning hazard) or the player's ball (losing hazard).
7. (obsolete) Anything that is hazarded or risked, such as a stake in gambling.
   • c.1600?, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

     But if you please
     To shoot another arrow that self way
     Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
     As I will watch the aim, or to find both
     Or bring your latter hazard back again
     And thankfully rest debtor for the first.

Verb

hazard (third-person singular simple present hazards, present participle hazarding, simple past and past participle hazarded)

1. To expose to chance; to take a risk.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Clarke

     Men hazard nothing by a course of evangelical obedience.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Fuller

     He hazards his neck to the halter.

2. To risk (something); to venture, to incur, or bring on.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

     I hazarded the loss of whom I loved.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Landor

     They hazard to cut their feet.

   I'll hazard a guess.

Etymology

Borrowed from German [Term?], from Old French hasart.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɦazart/

Noun

hazard m

1. gambling
2. risk, gamble

References

Noun

hazard m (plural hazards)

1. Archaic spelling of hasard, chiefly used before 1800

Noun

hazard m (invariable)

1. hazard lights (on a vehicle)

Noun

hazard m (plural hazards)

1. hazard; obstacle

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxa.zart/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

hazard m inan

1. (singular only) gambling
2. (electronics) race condition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xǎzard/
• Hyphenation: ha‧zard

Noun

hàzard m (Cyrillic spelling ха̀зард)

1. gamble, gambling
2. risk, hazard