hership means pillaging, devastation, plunder. It carries an Arena rating of 1418, earned across 25 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, hership ranks #1,009 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,454 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #3,708 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #4,484 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
hership is pronounced /ˈhɜːʃɪp/.
Why “hership” is a great word
HERSHIP — [Noun] The state or condition of being ravaged or despoiled by warlike raiding. From Middle English herien ("to harry, plunder"), from Old English herġan ("to harry, ravage"), + the suffix -ship (denoting state or condition). First attested around 1487. Unlike "pillage," which denotes a general seizure, or "devastation," which emphasizes ruin, hership is the specific, martial condition wrought by a border raid—the driving off of cattle, the stripping of granaries, the smoldering steading. It is the trampled mud of an empty byre, the cold hearth in a stripped hall, and the long silence after the hoofbeats fade—a palpable emptiness where livelihood once stood.
Etymology
From here (“army”), or the stem of Old English herġan (“harry”), + -ship.
noun
- Pillaging, devastation, plunder.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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