hark
v.to listen carefully to something. You use this word when you want to show that you are paying close attention to a sound or a voice.
v.to listen attentively or with great care. Often used in the imperative form to draw attention to a specific sound or voice.
“Hark! I can hear the birds singing outside.”
“Hark to the distant thunder as the storm moves closer to the valley.”
“Hark, the sound of the approaching train grows louder as it rounds the final bend before the station.”
“Burnham’s approach harks further back still to Labour prime minister Harold Wilson’s Department for Economic Affairs (DEA), a short-lived attempt to bring long-term thinking to British economic policymaking.”
From Middle English herken, herkien, from Old English hercian, heorcian, hiercian, from Proto-West Germanic hauʀikōn, hauʀukōn, derived ultimately from Proto-Germanic hauzijaną (“to hear”) + formative/intensive -k (see also the related hīeran, whence English hear). Equivalent to hear + -k. Cognate with Scots herk (“to hark”), North Frisian harke (“to hark”), West Frisian harkje (“to listen”), obsolete Dutch horken (“to hark, listen to”), Middle Low German horken (“to hark”), German horchen (“to hark, harken to”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.