Sunday, May 11, 2008

365 New Words a Year [Merriam Webster] (Workman Publishing 11/11/7: haggard

haggard adj 1: of a hawk : not tamed 2a: wild in appearance b: having a worn or emaciated appearance : gaunt
From the Did you know: "Haggard comes from falconry, the sport of hunting with a trained bird of prey. Until very recently, falconers trained wild birds that were either taken from the nest when quite young or trapped as adults. A bird trapped as an adult is termed a 'haggard', from the Middle French hagard. Such a bird is notoriously wild and difficult to train, and it wasn't long before the falconry sense of haggard was being applied in an extended way to a 'wild' and intractable person. Next, the word came to express the way a human face looks when a person is exhausted, anxious, or terrified. Today, the most common meaning of haggard is 'gaunt' or 'worn'." Rating 8/10 Merles.
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"