Hurdles is a race in which runners jump barriers on the way. The four hundred metre hurdles, run the hurdles, win the hurdles.
The barriers tip over if struck, so knocking one costs speed rather than a penalty, and the great hurdlers barely clear them at all. The stride pattern between barriers is fixed and practised, and losing it costs the race.
1nounhurdlesA race in which runners jump barriers on the way.
“She finished second in the 100 metres hurdles at the championships.”
hurdles is a race.
Proto-Indo-European
*kreh₂-
Proto-Germanic
*hurdiz
Old English
hyrdel — frame of intertwined twigs used as a temporary barrier
Middle English
hurdel
English
hurdle
English, today
hurdles
hurdle comes from Middle English hurdel, hirdel, herdel, hyrdel, from Old English hyrdel (“frame of intertwined twigs used as a temporary barrier”), diminutive of hyrd, from Proto-Germanic hurdiz, from Pre-Germanic kr̥h₂tis, from Proto-Indo-European kreh₂-. Cognate with Dutch horde, German Hürde.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA