Etymology Dictionary

HAG,  an ugly old woman.  (E.)   M. E. hagge; P. Plowman, B. v. 191.   The pl. heggen is in the Ancren Riwle, p. 216.   The A. S. form is fuller, viz. hægtesse, used to translate Lat. pythonissa, a prophetess or witch; Wright's Vocab. i. 60, col. 1.   In the same column, we also find:  'Tisiphona, wælcyrre; Parcæ, hægtesse;' on which Mr. Wright remarks:  'The Anglo-Saxon of these words would appear to be transposed.   Hægtesse means properly a fury, or in its modern representative, a hag, and would apply singly to Tysiphone, while wælcyrian was the name of the three fates of the A. S. mythology.'   [Somner also gives a form hægesse, but for this I can find no authority.] + G. hexe, a witch; O. H. G. házissa, apparently short for hagazissa; cf. M. H. G. hacke, a witch.   β. The suffix -t-esse, O. H. G. -z-issa, contains a feminine ending; the base is possibly (as has been suggested) the A. S. haga (G. hag), a hedge, bush; it being supposed that witches were seen in bushes by night.   See Hedge, and Haggard.   ¶ The Du. haagdis, haagedis, a lizard, strikingly resembles in form the A. S. hægtesse; and is easily derived from Du. haag, a hedge.   Der. hag-gard (2), q.v.; and even haggard (1) is from the same base.