Definitions and meaning of hag
hag
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /hæɡ/
-
- Rhymes: -æɡ
Etymology 1
From Middle English hagge, hegge (“demon, old woman”), shortening of Old English hægtesse, hægtes (“harpy, witch”), from Proto-West Germanic *hagatussjā. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Häkse (“witch”), Dutch heks, German Hexe (“witch”). Doublet of hex.
Noun
hag (plural hags)
- A witch, sorceress, or enchantress; a wizard.
- (derogatory) An ugly old woman.
- (derogatory) An evil woman.
- A fury; a she-monster.
- A hagfish; one of various eel-like fish of the family Myxinidae, allied to the lamprey, with a suctorial mouth, labial appendages, and a single pair of gill openings.
- A hagdon or shearwater; one of various sea birds of the genus Puffinus.
- (obsolete) An appearance of light and fire on a horse's mane or a person's hair.
- The fruit of the hagberry, Prunus padus.
- (uncountable, slang) Sleep paralysis.
Synonyms
- (witch or sorceress): See Thesaurus:magician
- (ugly old woman): See Thesaurus:ugly woman
- (eel-like marine fish): borer, hagfish, sleepmarken, slime eel, sucker, myxinid
- (sea bird): hagdon, haglet, shearwater
- (fruit of the hagberry): bird cherry, hackberry
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
From Middle English hag (denoting a gap in a cliff), from Old Norse hǫgg (“cut, gap, breach”), derivative of hǫggva (“to hack, hew”). Compare English hew, Old Swedish hug (“blow, stroke”).
Noun
hag (plural hags)
- (Northern England) A small wood, or part of a wood or copse, which is marked off or enclosed for felling, or which has been felled. [from 15th c.]
- A marshy hollow, especially an area of peat lying lower than surrounding moorland, formed by erosion of a gully or cutting and often having steep edges. [from 16th c.]
Derived terms
Etymology 3
From Middle English haggen, from Proto-Germanic *hag(g)ōnan (compare obsolete Dutch hagen (“to torment, agonize”), Norwegian haga (“to tire, weaken”)).
Verb
hag (third-person singular simple present hags, present participle hagging, simple past and past participle hagged)
- (transitive) To harass; to weary with vexation.
References
Further reading
-
- Hag in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
Anagrams
Breton
Conjunction
hag
- and
Synonyms
- (before consonants or /j/) ha
Cornish
Conjunction
hag
- and
Synonyms
Danish
Verb
hag
- imperative of hage
Scots
Etymology 1
From Middle English haggen (“to hack, chop, cut”), from Old Norse hǫggva (“to hew”). Compare English hag, above. Noun attested from the 14th century in Older Scots, with the verb from c. 1400.
Alternative forms
Noun
hag (plural hags)
- a notch; a pit or break
- a stroke of an axe or similar instrument
- the felling of timber; the quantity of wood felled
- a quagmire from which peat or turf is cut
Verb
hag (third-person singular simple present hags, present participle haggin, simple past hagg'd, past participle haggit)
- to chop (wood); to hack; to dig out (coal etc.)
- (figurative) to make a hash of (something)
- to cut down trees and prepare timber
Etymology 2
Unknown. Perhaps from Etymology 1 above, “to hack”, thus “castrate”. Compare hogg (“a young sheep”). Attested from the 19th century.
Noun
hag (plural hags)
- an ox
- a cattleman, one who raises cattle or oxen
- Synonym: hagman
Etymology 3
From Icelandic hagga (“to budge; to put out of place”). Attested from the 20th century.
Verb
hag (third-person singular simple present hags, present participle haggin, simple past hagg'd, past participle haggit)
- to hinder; to impede
References
- “hag, v1, n1.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
- “hag, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
- “hag, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
- “haggen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “hag, n2.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
- “hag, v2.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
Source: wiktionary.org