hag

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See also håg, hág, Hag, and Hag.

Contents

English [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

Middle English hagge, hegge 'demon, old woman', shortening of Old English hægtesse, hægtes 'harpy, witch', from Proto-Germanic *hagatusjōn (compare East Frisian Häkse, Dutch heks, German Hexe), compound of (1) *hagaz 'able, skilled' (compare Old Norse hagr 'handy, skillful', Middle High German behac 'pleasurable'), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱak- (compare Sanskrit ... (śaknóti) 'he can'),[1] and (2) *tusjōn 'witch' (compare Norwegian dialect tysja 'fairy, she-elf').[2]

Noun [edit]

hag (plural hags)

  1. A witch, sorceress, or enchantress; also, a wizard.
  2. (pejorative) An ugly old woman.
  3. A fury; a she-monster.
  4. An eel-like marine marsipobranch (Myxine glutinosa), allied to the lamprey. It has a suctorial mouth, with labial appendages, and a single pair of gill openings. It is the type of the order Hyperotreti. Called also hagfish, borer, slime eel, sucker, and sleepmarken.
  5. The hagdon or shearwater.
  6. An appearance of light and fire on a horse's mane or a man's hair.
  7. The fruit of the hagberry.
Synonyms [edit]
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
a witch, sorceress, or enchantress; also, a wizard
an ugly old woman
a fury; a she-monster
an eel-like marine marsipobranch
the hagdon or shearwater
an appearance of light and fire on a horse's mane or a man's hair

Verb [edit]

hag (third-person singular simple present hags, present participle hagging, simple past and past participle hagged)

  1. (transitive) To harass; to weary with vexation.
    • L'Estrange
      How are superstitious men hagged out of their wits with the fancy of omens.
References [edit]
  1. ^ Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, s.v. “*xaʒaz” (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 149-50.
  2. ^ E.C. Polomé (1987), "Althochdeutsch hag(a)zussa 'Hexe': Versuch einer neuen Etymologie", Althochdeutsch 2 (Wörter und Namen. Forschungsgeschichte), ed., R. Bergmann, 1107-1112.

Etymology 2 [edit]

Scots hag (“to cut”); compare English hack.

Noun [edit]

hag (plural hags)

  1. A small wood, or part of a wood or copse, which is marked off or enclosed for felling, or which has been felled.
    • Fairfax
      This said, he led me over hoults and hags; / Through thorns and bushes scant my legs I drew.
  2. A quagmire; mossy ground where peat or turf has been cut.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dugdale to this entry?)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Anagrams [edit]

Breton [edit]

Conjunction [edit]

hag

  1. and

Synonyms [edit]

  • ha - before a consonant (and /j/)

Cornish [edit]

Conjunction [edit]

hag

  1. and (before a vowel)
    Yma hwans dhymm a diwes hag avel.
    I want a drink and an apple.

Synonyms [edit]

  • ha - before a consonant.

Danish [edit]

Verb [edit]

hag

  1. imperative of hage
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