hart
n. countablen. an adult male deer, especially a red deer that is more than five years old. This is an old-fashioned word you mostly see in history books or stories about kings and forests.
n. a male red deer, specifically one over five years of age. Archaic in register; primarily encountered in heraldry, medieval literature, or historical legal contexts.
The king hunted a large hart in the royal forest.
In the tapestry, a majestic hart stands near a stream while hunters approach from the distance.
The medieval poem uses the image of a wounded hart as a metaphor for the knight's spiritual exhaustion and his search for divine grace.
* As an English and north/Low German surname, from the noun hart (“stag”). * As a German surname, variant of Hardt. As a Jewish/Yiddish and Dutch surname, from derivatives of hertā (“heart”), hard(ī) (“hard”), or herut (“stag”), or converged senses of them. These senses are also translated from other languages such as French Francoeur, Jolicoeur, Vadeboncoeur, and Native American (Cheyenne) Homa'ehesta, from homa'e (“beaver”) + hesta (“heart”). * As an Irish surname, from Ó hAirt (“descendant of Art”), from the noun art (“bear”). Compare Hartin.
Often used in historical or poetic contexts; largely replaced by 'stag' in modern biological or general descriptions.