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I am told that the word hart was in the past a substantive (not only an adjective) with the meaning of "glade", like a "forest grade". As an example: Steinhart had the meaning of "the glade of the stones". Can you confirm or deny this?

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    Was ist ein glade of stones? Leo sagt Lichtung für glade - was soll eine Steinlichtung sein?
    – user unknown
    Jul 13, 2013 at 10:09
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    @downvoters please re-consider your downvotes. The question is on-topic, clearly written, and does show some research effort. Please do not vote carelessly.
    – Takkat
    Jul 13, 2013 at 11:27

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Indeed there used to be a noun "Hart", "Hard", "Hardt" or "Harz" used in the meaning of a forest, or a mountain grown with trees.

Today there are still remnants of this meaning in names of locations, regions or towns. The most known region being "Der Harz", a mountain range in middle Germany.

This may also be the case for the then names of the village and the ruined castle "Steinhart", Bavaria, but the common meaning of the composite adjective "steinhart" is (and presumably always was) hard as stone, which is not related to a forest.

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  • I had to think of Hardthöhe immediately... that was one catchy name. I wonder why they never use it anymore
    – Emanuel
    Jul 13, 2013 at 22:39
  • yeah - Hardthöhe is another nice example :)
    – Takkat
    Jul 14, 2013 at 7:35

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