harass [E17th] This came from French in the early 17th century and is probably from harer ‘to set a dog on’. The notion of intimidation arose during the 19th century, with sexual harassment acquiring prominence in the 1970s. The sound and sense of harass may be similar to those of harry, but the two are unrelated: harry [OE] goes back to an ancient root meaning ‘army, host’, which also gave us the bird called a harrier [M16th], but not the dogs [LME], which got their name from the hares they were bred to hunt.