hardcore

Etymology

hard + core: hard to the core; 1936 (n.); 1951 (adj.)

adj

1. Having an extreme dedication to a certain activity.
   He's a hardcore gamer.
2. (colloquial) Particularly intense; thrillingly dangerous or erratic; desirably violent in appearance; pleasing or "cool" due to intensity or danger.
   That show was hardcore, dude.
3. Resistant to change.
4. Obscene or explicit.
5. (pornography) Depicting penetration and abnormal sexual activity.
6. (music) Faster or more intense than the regular style.

noun

1. Broken bricks, stone and/or other aggregate used as foundations, especially in road and path laying.
   You need to excavate and remove the topsoil, line the subsoil with a geotextile, then lay and compact hardcore. 24 August 2014, Jeff Howell, “Home improvements: gravel paths and cutting heating bills [print version: Cold comfort in technology, 23 August 2014, p. P5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property)
2. Several music genres, including:
   1. Hardcore punk.
      Fields began recording the hardcore punk bands in 1978 when few others would. 1981, Cary Darling, Billboard, page 10
   2. Gangsta rap.
   3. Hardcore techno.
   4. Jungle.
      Always more multiracial than other post-Rave scenes, Hardcore got “blacker” as hiphop, Ragga, dub and Soul influences kicked in, and by 93 it had evolved into Jungle. By this point, Hardcore/Jungle (the terms remain interchangeable) was universally scorned by dance hipsters and banished from the media. 1994 September, Simon Reynolds, “Above The Treeline”, in The Wire
   5. Outlaw country.