Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

-ard \-ard\, -art \-art\
   The termination of many English words; as, coward, reynard,
   drunkard, mostly from the French, in which language this
   ending is of German origin, being orig. the same word as
   English hard. It usually has the sense of one who has to a
   high or excessive degree the quality expressed by the root;
   as, braggart, sluggard.