different between hag vs shag

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

From Middle English hagge, hegge (“demon, old woman”), shortening of Old English hægtesse, hægtes (“harpy, witch”), from Proto-Germanic *hagatusj? (compare Saterland Frisian Häkse (“witch”), Dutch heks, German Hexe (“witch”)), compounds of (1) *hagaz (“able, skilled”) (compare Old Norse hagr (“handy, skillful”), Middle High German behac (“pleasurable”)), from Proto-Indo-European *?ak- (compare Sanskrit ??????? (?aknóti, “he can”)), and (2) *tusj? (“witch”) (compare dialectal Norwegian tysja (“fairy, she-elf”)).

Noun

hag (plural hags)

1. A witch, sorceress, or enchantress; a wizard.
2. (derogatory) An ugly old woman.
3. A fury; a she-monster.
   • 1646, Richard Crashaw, Steps to the Temple, “Sospetto D' Herode”, stanza 37:

     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 execution

4. 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.
5. A hagdon or shearwater; one of various sea birds of the genus Puffinus.
6. (obsolete) An appearance of light and fire on a horse's mane or a man's hair.
7. The fruit of the hagberry, Prunus padus.
8. (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

• fag hag

Translations

Etymology 2

From Scots hag (“to cut”), from Old Norse h?gg (“cut, gap, breach”), derivative of h?ggva (“to hack, hew”); compare English hew.

Noun

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.
2. A quagmire; mossy ground where peat or turf has been cut.

Etymology 3

From Proto-Germanic *hag(g)?nan (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)

1. (transitive) To harass; to weary with vexation.

References

Further reading

• Hag in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• HGA, agh, gah, gha

Breton

Conjunction

hag

1. and

Synonyms

• (before consonants or /j/) ha

Cornish

Conjunction

hag

1. and

Synonyms

• (before consonants) ha

Danish

Verb

hag

1. imperative of hage

Scots

Etymology 1

From Middle English haggen (“to hack, chop, cut”), from Old Norse h?ggva (“to hew”). Compare English hag, above. Noun attested from the 14th century in Older Scots, with the verb from c. 1400.

Alternative forms

• hagg
• haag, haug

Noun

hag (plural hags)

1. a notch; a pit or break
2. a stroke of an axe or similar instrument
3. the felling of timber; the quantity of wood felled
4. a quagmire from which peat or turf is cut

Verb

hag (third-person singular present hags, present participle haggin, past hagg'd, past participle haggit)

1. to chop (wood); to hack; to dig out (coal etc.)
2. (figuratively) to make a hash of (something)
3. 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)

1. an ox
2. 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 present hags, present participle haggin, past hagg'd, past participle haggit)

1. to hinder; to impede

References

• “hag, v¹, n¹.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–, OCLC 57069714, 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–, OCLC 57069714, 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–, OCLC 57069714, 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–, OCLC 57069714, 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–, OCLC 57069714, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, ?OCLC

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Saxon hago (“enclosure”). Doublet of haga.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [h???], [hæ??]

  Rhymes: -á??, -???

  (a-o merger) Rhymes: -????, -????

Noun

hag n (definite hagjä)

1. simple fence or enclosure made of sticks, twigs or bushes
2. (hunting) such a construction used for hunting, with openings with snares and traps where birds and hares are caught

Derived terms

• ryphag

Related terms

• hååg
• haga
• hägi

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

From Middle English *schagge, from Old English s?eacga (“hair, wool”), from Proto-Germanic *skaggô, *skaggij? (“projection, bristly hair, stem”), Proto-Germanic *skag- (“to emerge, stick out, protrude”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kek-, *(s)keg- (“to jump, move, hurry”). Akin to Old Norse skegg (“beard”) (compare Danish skæg, Norwegian skjegg, Swedish skägg).

Noun

shag (countable and uncountable, plural shags)

1. Matted material; rough massed hair, fibres etc.
2. Coarse shredded tobacco.
3. A type of rough carpet pile.
4. (Britain, archaic) Bacon or fat, especially if with some remaining hair or bristles.
5. (Britain, archaic) A roughly-cut or torn-off piece of bread or cheese.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

shag (third-person singular simple present shags, present participle shagging, simple past and past participle shagged)

1. (transitive) To make hairy or shaggy; to roughen.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To hang in shaggy clusters.

Adjective

shag (comparative more shag, superlative most shag)

1. (obsolete) Hairy; shaggy.

Etymology 2

Perhaps a derivative of Etymology 1, above, with reference to the bird's shaggy crest.

Noun

shag (plural shags)

1. Several species of sea birds in the family Phalacrocoracidae (cormorant family), especially the common shag or European shag, Phalacrocorax aristotelis, found on European and African coasts.
   • 1941, Ernestine Hill, My Love Must Wait, A&R Classics 2013, p. 7:

     He ran back and picked up a dead bird that had fallen. It was not a duck but a shag.

Hypernyms

• sea bird

Hyponyms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English schaggen, a variant of Middle English schoggen (“to shake; shake off; tremble”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a byform of Middle English schokken (“to shake; move rapidly”), related to Middle Low German schokken (“to shake; tremble”). Alternatively, perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *skakk?n? (“to shake”), specifically continuing a post-Proto-Germanic variant *skagg-, where the non-singular stem *skag- caused the analogical replacement of the stem-final voiceless geminate consonants with voiced geminates, which was then leveled throughout the paradigm.

Verb

shag (third-person singular simple present shags, present participle shagging, simple past and past participle shagged)

1. (intransitive) To shake, wiggle around.
2. (transitive, vulgar slang) To have sexual intercourse with.
3. (intransitive, vulgar slang) To have sexual intercourse.
4. (India, transitive, vulgar slang) To masturbate.
5. To chase after; especially, to chase after and return (a ball) hit usually out of play.
6. To perform the dance called the shag.

Synonyms

• (to shake): jiggle, rock, tremble, wobble; see also Thesaurus:shake
• (have sexual intercourse): bonk, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with
• (to have sexual intercourse): do it, get it on, have sex; see also Thesaurus:copulate
• (to masturbate): get it on, have sex; see also Thesaurus:masturbate

Translations

Noun

shag (plural shags)

1. A swing dance.
2. (slang) An act of sexual intercourse.
   • 2007, Julie Andrews, "Roman Must Die", in The Leonard Variations: Clarion 2007 San Diego, ?ISBN, page 10:

     They were in the midst of an intense snog, his tongue down her throat as he tried to work out if he wanted another shag before she left for the night, when an odd noise sounded from behind the door of 2B.

   • 2010, Clara Darling, Hot City Nights, St. Martin's Press (2010), ?ISBN, page 107:

     “And feel free to come over anytime you'd like a drink and a shag. […]

   • 2011, Josephine Myles, Barging In, Samhain Publishing, Ltd. (2011), ?ISBN, page 24:

     He could say yes, then just quietly leave the area without ever seeing the man again. He could even get a shag out of Charles first.

3. (slang) A casual sexual partner.
   • 2003, Freya North, Pip, Harper (2003), ?ISBN, unnumbered page:

     'It turned out that it was me who was just a shag to him. He had a girlfriend I didn't know about. He presumed I was up for some no-strings action. And the thing is, I thought I was – in theory. But in practice, I realized that I wasn't.'

   • 2008, Bruce Cooke, Trace Elements, Eternal Press (2008), ?ISBN, page 56:

     "Was I just another shag to you, Trace? Someone to bed when the offer came?"

   • 2011, Wes Lee, "Saul", in The Sleepers Almanac, No. 7 (eds. Zoe Dattner & Louise Swinn), Sleepers Publishing (2011), ?ISBN, page 135:

     'Your favourite shag?' I ask her.

     'Martin Kershen.'

     'He was a sexy beast.'

Synonyms

• (act of sexual intercourse): see also Thesaurus:copulation
• (casual sexual partner): see also Thesaurus:casual sexual partner.

Derived terms

• shag bandit

Translations

Etymology 4

Blend of shower (“bridal shower”) +? stag (“bachelor party”).

Noun

shag (plural shags)

1. (Canada, Northwestern Ontario) A fundraising dance in honour of a couple engaged to be married.

Synonyms

• stag and doe, stag and doe party (Canada, Ontario)
• social, wedding social (Canada, Prairies)

Translations

References

• “shag” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.

Etymology 5

Etymology unknown

Noun

shag (plural shags)

1. (West Country) Friend; mate; buddy.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:friend

Anagrams

• Gash, HAGS, gash, hags

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English shag.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??k/
• Hyphenation: shag
• Rhymes: -?k

Noun

shag m (uncountable, diminutive shagje n or sjekkie n)

1. shag (coarse shredded tobacco)