Hardy means able to survive hard conditions. A hardy plant, hardy sheep, a hardy soul.
In gardening it is a technical grading: a hardy plant survives outdoors through the winter, a half-hardy one needs protection, and a tender one has to come in. Of people it means tough and enduring: a hardy breed. Note foolhardy, which means recklessly bold and is a criticism; and that hardy comes from the same root as hard but through French, so it has a different shape and a warmer tone.
1adjectivehardyAble to survive hard conditions.
“These hardy sheep live on the hills all winter without shelter.”
hardy is a quality of toughness.
Old French hardi meant bold or daring, from a Frankish verb meaning to make hard. Hardy and hard are the same root by different routes, which is why hardy suits both a plant and a person.
Old French
hardi — hardy, daring, stout, bold
Middle English
hardy
English, today
hardy
From Middle English hardy, hardi, from Old French hardi (“hardy, daring, stout, bold”). Old French hardi is usually regarded as the past participle of hardir "to harden, be bold, make bold"; compare Occitan ardir, Italian ardire, from Frankish hardijan; but it may also have come directly from Frankish hardi, a secondary form of Frankish hard (compare Old High German harti, herti, secondary forms of Old High German hart (“hard”)); or even yet from Frankish hardig (compare Middle Low German herdich (“persevering”), gmq-oda hærdig, Norwegian herdig, Swedish härdig (“vigorous, courageous”)). Cognate with hard. May have at some point also been surface analysed as hard + -y.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA