† hagheradj.

Etymology: < early Scandinavian (compare early Runic hagi- (Denmark) in hagiradaz (personal name, apparently in the sense ‘good counsellor’), Old Icelandic hagr , Old Norwegian hagr (Norwegian hag ), Old Swedish hagher , all in the sense ‘skilful’), probably cognate with Middle High German -hag- in behac pleasing, agreeable, and Old English (Northumbrian) hæg- (in hæghāl unharmed, safe from harm; rare) < the same Germanic base as Old English -hagian (in gehagian , onhagian , both in senses such as ‘to suit a person, to be within a person's power’), Old Frisian hagia (also prefixed as bihagia ), Middle Dutch hāgen (chiefly prefixed as behāgen , Dutch behagen ), Old Saxon -hagon (in bihagon , Middle Low German hāgen , behāgen ), Middle High German hagen (chiefly prefixed as behagen , German behagen ), all in the sense ‘to please’, Old Icelandic haga , Old Swedish hagha , both in senses such as ‘to arrange, to suit’; further origin uncertain and disputed, perhaps either < the same Indo-European base as Sanskrit śak- to be able, śakti power, Early Irish cécht power, or < the same Germanic base as haw n.¹ Compare haghely adv., and also hagherlaik n.The final -r of the stem in English apparently reflects the nominative singular masculine ending of the adjective in early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic hagr); compare haghely adv., which shows borrowing of the early Scandinavian stem. The retention of -r is unusual, but further supports early Scandinavian origin (compare the retention of Scandinavian inflectional -t in e.g. want adj., wight adj.). There is no evidence for metanalysis of -r in the older Scandinavian languages; Icelandic hegurð is later. Semantic development. With sense 2 perhaps compare occasional use in the sense ‘skilfully made’ in Old Norwegian.