haggard: [16] Haggard was originally a falconer’s term for a hawk as yet untamed. It has been suggested that its ultimate source was Germanic *khag-, which also produced English hedge, the implication being that a haggard was a hawk that sat in a hedge rather than on the falconer’s arm. The modern meaning ‘gaunt’ developed in the 17th century, probably by association with hag ‘ugly old woman’ [13] (perhaps a shortening of Old English hægtesse ‘witch’, a word of unknown origin related to German hexe ‘witch’). => hedge
haggard (adj.)
1560s, "wild, unruly" (originally in reference to hawks), from Middle French haggard, probably from Old French faulcon hagard "wild falcon," literally "falcon of the woods," from hagard, hagart, from Middle High German hag "hedge, copse, wood," from Proto-Germanic *hagon, from PIE root *kagh- "to catch, seize;" also "wickerwork, fence" (see hedge (n.)). OED, however, finds this derivation "very doubtful." Sense perhaps reinforced by Low German hager "gaunt, haggard." Sense of "with a haunted and wild expression" first recorded 1690s; that of "careworn" first recorded 1853. Sense influenced by association with hag. Related: Haggardly; haggardness.
