haggard means A surname. It carries an Arena rating of 1517, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, haggard ranks #388 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #758 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,385 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,613 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words.
haggard is pronounced /ˈhæɡ.əd/.
Why “haggard” is a great word
Looking exhausted and careworn, especially from fatigue, strain, or hardship. From Middle French haggard, from Old French faulcon hagard ("wild falcon"), from Middle High German hag ("coppice, hedge"). Unlike "weary," which suggests a tiredness born of simple exertion, or "wild," which denotes a state of untamed nature, haggard captures the specific, visible aftermath—the face gaunt from prolonged anxiety, the eyes hollowed by sleepless vigil, the entire bearing etched by ordeal. It is the look of a parent waiting through a long night in a hospital corridor, the expression fixed on a soldier after a relentless campaign, or the worn countenance of a falcon, finally caught from the hedge, its spirit broken by the confinement it always feared. It is the portrait of endurance when endurance has taken its toll, the body a map of what the spirit has weathered.
Etymology
From Middle French haggard, from Old French faulcon hagard (“wild falcon”) ( > French hagard (“dazed”)), from Middle High German hag (“coppice”) ( > archaic German Hag (“hedge, grove”)). Akin to Frankish *hagia ( > French haie (“hedge”))
name
- A surname.
- An unincorporated community in Gray County, Kansas, United States.
adj
- Looking exhausted, worried, or poor in conditione.g.“Pale and haggard faces.”
- Wild or untamede.g.“a haggard or refractory hawk”
noun
- A hunting bird captured as an adult.e.g.“No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful;
I know her spirits are as coy and wild
As haggards of the rock.” — 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] B
- A young or untrained hawk or falcon.
- A fierce, intractable creature.e.g.“I have loved this proud disdainful haggard.” — c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blo
- A hag.e.g.“In a dark Grott the baleful Haggard lay,
Breathing black Vengeance, and infecting Day” — 1699, Samuel Garth, The Dispensary:
- A stackyard, an enclosure on a farm for stacking grain, hay, etc.e.g.“He tuk a slew [swerve] round the haggard http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/am1924/pt_s.htm”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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