Hag

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

A hag is a term for an old lady, popularly used as an insult to imply that one is hideous, evil and vile. It is also popularly used to imply that one is a witch, which is close to its original meaning; although in modern usage it is normally used to imply one is like a witch, rather than one is a witch.

Hag is a contraction of the Old English hægtesse, meaning "witch" or "fury". It is likely that the haeg element of the word is cognate with the Old English haga, meaning "hedge" or "enclosure"; witches once being known as "hedge-riders". Haga not only gives us "hag" and "hedge", but also "hawthorn" (hagathorn). From this we may surmise that the hedge-riders were powerful witches who had oracular and magical powers, and "rode the hedge" in that they were the intermediaries between the village (the world of man) and the wilderness that lay beyond.