Harvard
name ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A surname transferred from the given name.
- 2 Any of a number of places named for persons with the surname, including a city in Massachusetts.
- 3 A university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, named after John Harvard, American clergyman and philanthropist.
"The Harvard psychologist and bestselling author Steven Pinker appeared on the podcast of Aporia, an outlet whose owners advocate for a revival of race science and have spoken of seeking “legitimation by association” by platforming more mainstream figures."
- 4 A person who attends, attended, or is likely to attend Harvard; by extension, a person very successful academically.
"I'd finished my second year at Harvard when I boarded the Penn Trader […] Not surprisingly. my name became Harvard. "Hey Harvard, get your ass back to the lazarette and bring me another bucket of red lead!""
- 5 A person who attends, attended, or is likely to attend Harvard; by extension, a person very successful academically.; a person who is nerdy, excessively privileged, pretentious broadly, derogatory
"Don't mind her, kiddos. Miss Harvard ain't used to gettin' her hands dirty."
Example
More examples"Masako finished high school in Japan and then graduated from Harvard."
Etymology
A variant of Harward reflecting the merger of /v/ and /w/ in the dialects of southeastern England; thus from Middle English Herward, Herreward, itself from Old English Hereweard and a doublet of Harward and Hereward. Compare German Herwarth.
Related phrases
More for "harvard"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.