haggard
pronunciation
How to pronounce haggard in British English:
UK [ˈhægəd]
How to pronounce haggard in American English:
US [ˈhægərd]
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- Adjective:
- showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering
- very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold
Word Origin
- haggard
- haggard: [16] Haggard was originally a falconer’s term for a hawk as yet untamed. It has been suggested that its ultimate source was Germanic *khag-, which also produced English hedge, the implication being that a haggard was a hawk that sat in a hedge rather than on the falconer’s arm. The modern meaning ‘gaunt’ developed in the 17th century, probably by association with hag ‘ugly old woman’ [13] (perhaps a shortening of Old English hægtesse ‘witch’, a word of unknown origin related to German hexe ‘witch’).=> hedge
- haggard (adj.)
- 1560s, "wild, unruly" (originally in reference to hawks), from Middle French haggard, probably from Old French faulcon hagard "wild falcon," literally "falcon of the woods," from hagard, hagart, from Middle High German hag "hedge, copse, wood," from Proto-Germanic *hagon, from PIE root *kagh- "to catch, seize;" also "wickerwork, fence" (see hedge (n.)). OED, however, finds this derivation "very doubtful." Sense perhaps reinforced by Low German hager "gaunt, haggard." Sense of "with a haunted and wild expression" first recorded 1690s; that of "careworn" first recorded 1853. Sense influenced by association with hag. Related: Haggardly; haggardness.
Example
- 1. I know some old people who are haggard , frail and struggle to walk .
- 2. Manufacturers should only show haggard motorists conveying screaming brats to school , or cursing as jams delay important meetings .
- 3. Most decisively , richard nixon 's pale , haggard appearance in a 1960 clash with a tanned , relaxed john f. kennedy was understood that same night as a disaster for the republican .
- 4. Not only because of its beauty , but also because its used to hide the beauty of its haggard and gaunt .
- 5. But longo and haggard are still not sure why the brain has such a distorted perception of our hand proportions .