Hag vs Hex - What's the difference?
hag | hex |
A witch, sorceress, or enchantress; a wizard.
* (rfdate) Golding
(pejorative) An ugly old woman.
A fury; a she-monster.
A hagfish; an eel-like marine marsipobranch, , allied to the lamprey, with a suctorial mouth, labial appendages, and a single pair of gill openings.
A hagdon or shearwater.
An appearance of light and fire on a horse's mane or a man's hair.
The fruit of the hagberry, Prunus padus .
To harass; to weary with vexation.
* L'Estrange
A small wood, or part of a wood or copse, which is marked off or enclosed for felling, or which has been felled.
* Fairfax
A quagmire; mossy ground where peat or turf has been cut.
(Webster 1913)
To put a hex (a spell, especially an evil spell) on.
An evil spell or curse.
A witch.
(rare) A spell (now rare but still found in compounds such as hex sign and hexcraft).
(computing, informal)
A hexagonal space on a game board.
a hexagon-shaped item of rock climbing equipment intended to be wedged into a crack or other opening in the rock.
English terms with multiple etymologies
As nouns the difference between hag and hex
is that hag is mind, mindset, temper, inclination while hex is witch.hag
English
Etymology 1
(etyl) hagge, hegge 'demon, old woman', shortening of (etyl) '', ).1987, E. C. Polomé, R. Bergmann (editor), "Althochdeutsch ''hag(a)zussa'' 'Hexe': Versuch einer neuen Etymologie", ''Althochdeutsch 2 (Wörter und Namen. Forschungsgeschichte) , pages 1107-1112.Noun
(en noun)- [Silenus] that old hag .
- (Crashaw)
- (Blount)
Synonyms
* (witch or sorceress) * (ugly old woman) See also * (fury or she-monster) * (eel-like marine marsipobranch) borer, hagfish, sleepmarken, slime eel, sucker * (hagdon or shearwater) * (appearance of light and fire on mane or hair) * (fruit of the hagberry)Derived terms
* fag hagVerb
(hagg)- How are superstitious men hagged out of their wits with the fancy of omens.
Etymology 2
Scots ; compare English hack.Noun
(en noun)- This said, he led me over hoults and hags ; / Through thorns and bushes scant my legs I drew.
- (Dugdale)