Etymology of the word "hag"

 

From Webster's Dictionary

Middle English hagge demon, old woman

an ugly, slatternly, or evil-looking old woman2archaic a: a female demon b: an evil or frightening spirit : hobgoblin3: witch

 

From the Online Etymology Dictionary

c.1225, shortening of O.E. hægtesse "witch, fury" ... may be connected with Norw. tysja "fairy, crippled woman," Gaul. dusius "demon," Lith. dvasia "spirit," from PIE *dhewes- "to fly about, smoke, be scattered, vanish."

One of the magic words for which there is no male form, suggesting its original meaning was close to "diviner, soothsayer," which were always female in northern European paganism, and hægtesse seem at one time to have meant "woman of prophetic and oracular powers" (Ælfric uses it to render the Gk. "pythoness," the source of the Delphic oracle), a figure greatly feared and respected.

 

Later, the word was used of village wise women. Haga is also the haw- in hawthorn, which is a central plant in northern European pagan religion. There may be several layers of folk-etymology here. If the hægtesse was once a powerful supernatural woman (in Norse it is an alternate word for Norns, the three weird sisters, the equivalent of the Fates), it may have originally carried the hawthorn sense.

 

From Barbara Walkers The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:
Hag: Originally wise woman, the Hag was a cognate of Egyptian, heg, a predynastic matriarchal ruler who knew the words of power, hekau. In Greek, she became Hecate, The Crone or Hag as queen of the dead, incarnate on earth in a series of wise-women or high priestesses.

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