Etymology 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.
A witch, sorceress, or enchantress; a female wizard.
And that olde hag that with a staffe his staggering lymbes dooth stay1565, Arthur Golding (tr.), The Fyrst Fower Bookes of P. Ouidius Nasos worke intitled Metamorphosis, London: William Seres, The Fovrthe Booke:
Such unaccountable masses of shades and shadows, that at first you almost thought some ambitious young artist, in the time of the New England hags, had endeavored to delineate chaos bewitched.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 11:
The elder women were literally "old hags" - lean and shrivelled, and excessively ugly.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 67:
I don't plan to stop drinking. But... I don't wanna forget. I can't turn away anymore. So, if I'm gonna die, well, it might as well be driving my sword through the heart of that murderous hag.2017, Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, directed by Taika Waititi, Thor: Ragnarok, spoken by Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson):
Fourth of the cursed knot of hags is she / Or rather all the other three in one; / Hell's shop of slaughter she does oversee, / And still assist the execution1646, Richard Crashaw, “Sospetto D' Herode”, in Steps to the Temple, stanza 37:
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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.
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A hagdon or shearwater; one of various sea birds of the genus Puffinus.
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Obsolete An appearance of light and fire on a horse's mane or a person's hair.
Flamma lambentes (or those we call Haggs) are made of Sweat or some other Vapour issuing out of the Head; a not-unusuall sight amongst us when we ride by night in the Summer time: They are extinguisht, like flames, by shaking the Horse Mains1656, Thomas White, Peripateticall Institutions, page 149:
Etymology 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”).
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To cut or erode (as) a hag (a hollow into moorland).
hag […] is that part in mosses which is naturally or artificially cut, hollowed, hagged, or hacked; naturally by water runlets forming hollows, and artificially by, among other means, the cutting and removal of peat.1874, Notes and Queries, page 253:
Covenanters too met often on our moss-hagged moors.1956, Scotland's Magazine, volume 52, page 39:
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[…] on one occasion, where the bog had been cut away, a stump was discovered which bore evident marks of having been hagged [hacked].1990, Angélique Day, Patrick McWilliams, Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Co. Antrim VIII-IX, page 5
Crowberry is particularly abundant on hagged peat and in cotton grass mires; it prefers drier ground, […]2024, Peter Hadden, Iain Chisholm, A Very British Journey:
hag
noun
Etymology 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”).
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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.
This said, he led me over hoults and hags; / Through thorns and bushes scant my legs I drew1845, Edward Fairfax (tr.), Godfrey of Bulloigne; or, The Recovery of Jerusalem: Done into English Heroical Verse, page 168:
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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.
And they likewise ordained […] that all the warp should be thrown into the Common wayes, to fill up haggs and lakes, where need was, upon a great penalty, where it should ly neer the Common rode.1662, Sir William Dugdale, The History of Imbanking and Drayning of Divers Fenns and Marshes, page 292:
[…] upon wet brae-sides, peat-haggs, and flow-mosses, […]1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 312:
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The uplands are generally mossy, resting on clay of a yellow colour, covered by moss of various depths, which often break into what are called hags, or flow-moss.1845, The New Statistical Account of Scotland: Ayr, Bute, page 107:
[…] I had made sure to find him in the hag o' Coars-Neuk Moor, […]1868, James Salmon, Gowodean, page 49:
The strongest nag that crosses th' hagg / Wi wots ta Fullod mill.1882, Joseph Senior, Smithy Rhymes and Stithy Chimes, Or, the Short and Simple Annals of the Poor, page 46:
[…] the murky flag / Flaps on Turftennant's rushy hag."1898, Charles Spence, From the Braes of the Carse: Poems and Songs by the Late Charles Spence, page 189:
Etymology From Middle English haggen, from Proto-Germanic *hag(g)ōnan (compare obsolete Dutch hagen (“to torment, agonize”), Norwegian haga (“to tire, weaken”)).
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To harass; to weary with vexation.
How are Superstitious Men Hagg'd Out of their Wits and Senses, with the Fancy of Omens, Forebodings, Old Wives Tales, and Visions1692, Roger L'Estrange (tr.), Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists: with Morals and Reflexions, page 149: