Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/152

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Haf
( 130 )
Hah

the sense of Lat. altum (‘high sea’), with heben (root haf, pre-Teut. kap), is not impossible, though scarcely probable.

Haft (1.), m., ‘hold, clasp, brace, rivet,’ from MidHG. and OHG. haft. m., ‘bond, fetter,’ OHG. also n., AS. hœft, m., OIc. haft, n., ‘setter.’ Connected with the root haf in heben, lit. ‘to seize.’

Haft (2.), f., ‘keeping, custody, prison,’ from MidHG. and OHG. haft (i stem) and hafta, f., OSax. hafta, f., ‘imprisonment.’ To this are allied OHG. and OSax. haft, AS. hœft, adj., ‘captured,’ OIc. haptr, m., ‘prisoner,’ hapta, f., ‘captured woman.’ The root haf (comp. heben) has preserved in these forms its old signification; comp. Lat. captus, captîvus. See the following word.

haft, adj. suffix, as in schmerzhaft, lebhaft, &c.; prop. an independent adj., ‘combined with,’ which was used as a suffix even in MidHG. and OHG.; in Goth. audahafts, ‘overwhelmed with happiness, supremely happy.’ This suffix is usually identified with the adj. hafta-, Lat. captus, discussed under Haft (2.). It might also be derived from the root hab, ‘to have,’ Lat. habere; the meaning supports the latter supposition.

Hag, m., ‘hedge, fence, enclosure,’ from MidHG. hac, hages, m., n., ‘thorn bushes, copse, fence, enclosed wood, park,’ OHG. hag, m., once as ‘urbs’ (comp. HG. Hagen, and names of places ending in -hag); Du. haag, f., ‘enclosure, hedge,’ AS. haga, m., E. haw, ‘enclosure, small garden’; OIc. hage, m., ‘pasture.’ Only in Goth. is a cognate word wanting; comp. Hain, Here, Hagen, and Hecke. The derivation is uncertain; it is at all events not connected with hauen, root haw; the meaning of ModHG. behagen is unsuitable.

Hagedorn, ‘hawthorn,’ an OTeut. term, MidHG. hagedorn, AS. hœgþorn, hagaþorn, E. hawthorn, OIc. hagþorn, m. Comp. Hagestolz.

Hagel, m., from the equiv. MidHG. hagel, OHG. hagal, m., ‘hail’; comp. Du. hagel, m., AS. hagol, hœgel, m., E. hail; OIc. hagl, n.; the common Teut. word for ‘hail,’ by chance not recorded in Goth. only. A single pebble was called a ‘stone.’ OIc. haglsteinn, AS. hœgelstân, E. hailstone, MidHG. and earlier ModHG. Hagelstein. Comp. ModHG. kieseln, ‘to hail,’ Kieselstein, ‘hailstone.’ Perhaps Hagel itself signified orig. nothing but a ‘pebble’; at least there are no phonetic difficulties against the deriva-

tion from pre-Teut. kaghlo-, ‘flint-stone’ (comp. Gr. κάχληξ, ‘small stone, pebble’).

Hagen, m., ‘grave,’ from MidHG. hagen, OHG. hagan, m., ‘thorn-bush, fence of thorns’; even in MidHG. a contracted variant hain, Hain, occurs, See the latter and Hag.

hagen, behagen, vb., from the equiv. MidHG. hagen, behagen, ‘to please, gratify,’ OHG. *bihagôn: comp. OSax. bihagôn, AS. onhagian, ‘to please, suit.’ The stem hag, ‘to suit,’ is widely diffused in OTeut., and its str. partic. is preserved in OHG. and MidHG. (gihagan and behagen, ‘suitable’). Allied to Scand. hagr, adj., ‘skilful,’ hagr, m., ‘state, situation, advantage,’ hœgr, ‘suitable.’ The root hag, from pre-Teut. kak, corresponds to the Sans. root çak, ‘to be capable, able, conducive,’ whence çakrá, ‘strong, helpful.’

hager, adj. (in UpG. rahn), ‘haggard, lean,’ from MidHG. hager, adj.; comp. E. haggard (MidE. hagger), which is usually connected with E. hag.

Hagestolz, m., ‘old bachelor,’ from MidHG. hagestolz, m., a strange corruption of the earlier hagestalt, OHG. hagastalt, m., prop. ‘possessor of an enclosure’ (allied to Goth. staldan, ‘to possess’); a West Teut. legal term, which originated before the Anglo-Saxons crossed to England (comp. also OIc. haukstaldr). It was used in contrast to the owner of the manor-house, which was inherited by the eldest son, in accordance with the OTeut. custom of primogeniture, and signified the owner of a small enclosed plot of ground, such as fell to the other sons, who could not set up a house of their own, and were often entirely dependent on their eldest brother. Even in OHG. glosses, hagustalt as an adj. is used for Lat. caelebs (hagustalt lîp, ‘single life’), and even for mercenarius, ‘hired labourer’; MidHG. hagestalt, m., ‘single man’; OSax. hagustald, m., ‘farm-servant, servant, young man’; AS. hœgsteald, hagosteald, m., ‘youth, warrior.’ The same phases in the development of meaning may be seen in the Rom.-Lat. baccalaureus, Fr. bachelier, E. bachelor.

Häher, m., ‘jay, jackdaw,’ from MidHG. hëher, m. and f., OHG. hëhara, f.; in AS., by a grammatical change, higora, m., OIc. here and hegre, m., ‘jay,’ MidLG. heger. It is rightly compared with Gr. κίσσα (from *κίκjα), ‘jay,’ or Sans. çakuná, ‘a large bird’ (Lat. ciconia, ‘stork’).