haggard

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   looking exhausted and unwell, as from fatigue or suffering

   After the sleepless week he looked pale and haggard.

Simplified etymology

Haggard began in 16th-century falconry as a term for an adult hawk caught in the wild for training, as opposed to one raised in captivity. Because such a bird was wild and untamed, the word was applied in the 17th century to wild-looking people or eyes and later to someone appearing exhausted or unwell. It may be related to hedge.

From Middle French hagard ('untamed, wild'), originally a falconry term for a wild adult hawk caught after maturity; of uncertain origin, perhaps Germanic and related to hedge. Sense 'gaunt, wild-looking' arose later.

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