HAGGARD
Wild Word Friday!
I don’t know about you, but when someone comes up to me and says, “Sue, you look tired,” even if I’m not tired, I suddenly feel tired. And sure enough, the next time I glance in a mirror, I look tired. I look worn out. I look HAGGARD! So is that the power of suggestion or – horror of horrors – did I, unbeknownst to me, look HAGGARD all day? :-0
The word HAGGARD comes to us with an unusual history . The word entered the English language from the Middle French hagard, which was a word used in falconry. At that time the birds used in falconry were not bred in captivity but captured in the wild, either as an eyas (a bird taken from the nest) or as an adult. Adult birds were generally very wild and tough to train. An adult trapped in the wild was called a hagard, which in English became HAGGARD. Eventually, HAGGARD was also used to refer to wild or anxious people. Now HAGGARD is most often used as an adjective to describe the face of a person under duress.
There’s nothing that makes me more HAGGARD than lack of sleep. How about you? Do you have a stress factor in your life that makes you look or feel HAGGARD?
Counting my blessings, too~
Sue
(Information from THE MERRIAM-WEBSTER New Book of WORD HISTORIES. Photo from Wikipedia.)
How interesting to learn the background for this word that I often use without thought of its origins. I’ve had a number of stresses that keep me awake nights, and when I can’t sleep I sit up with my laptop or a book until my eyes are tired and scratchy. That starts me rubbing them and I end up with that ‘raccoon’ look… circles under my eyes that exaggerate how tired and stressed I am. Then I really do look haggard. It’s a vicious circle! 🙂
I’m definitely a “raccoon eyes” person, too, Carol! Especially when I don’t get enough sleep!
funny! here in Ireland “haggard” is a common last name. But! haggard is used also to describe a tired look , more commonly used for the tired look is: “scruffy”.