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haze

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Pronunciation

haze1 mist

Etymology

Most dictionaries take the mist as probably a back-formation from English hazy,[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] itself of unknown origin, recorded from 1625 in several spellings.[4][6] The OED, revised in 2018, now calls the noun of unknown origin: it finds it in 1582, before the adjective (1584), which it derives from the noun.[9] It rejects a link with Old English hasu (“grey”), which Dictionary.com suggests, as raising problems of date, form and meaning.[9][10] Weekley and Etymonline mention a folk link with German Hase (“hare”), from the German saying that the hare is brewing when ground mist rises,[11][5] and Skeat compared haar, a Lowland Scots word for a sea fog.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fog or thick mist: 1582, in Richard Madox's diary.[9] Merriam-Webster, Barnhart and Etymonline date the noun to 1706,[2][4][5] and the Shorter Oxford and Hoad to the early 18th century;[8][6] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford note that the early sense was a thick fog, or hoar frost.[6][8]

Semantic evolution

The noun first named thick fog, and only later a thinner mist or a haze of dust or smoke.[6][8][9] Barnhart sees antecedents in the regional verb haze, to drizzle or be foggy (1674–91),[4] which John Ray recorded among northern words in 1691: "it hazes, it misles".[9][12] The Dialect Dictionary found that verb from Northumberland to Suffolk.[13] The figurative sense, a state of mental vagueness or confusion, appears in Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790);[9][4] Etymonline dates it to 1797.[5] The 19th century added a light diffused through mist (1829), the shimmer of hot air (1847) and, in medicine, a clouding of the eye (1820).[9] The verb meaning to make hazy is recorded from 1801.[9] In drug slang haze, short for purple haze, has meant LSD since 1977.[14]

Timeline

  • 1582 – a fog or thick mist.[9]
  • 1691 – verb, to drizzle, be foggy (regional).[9][2]
  • 1706 – the date Merriam-Webster, Barnhart and Etymonline give for the noun.[2][4][5]
  • 1790 – mental vagueness or confusion.[9]
  • 1801 – verb, to make hazy.[9]
  • 1820 – clouding of the cornea or lens of the eye.[9]
  • 1847 – the shimmering of the air in hot weather.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Fine particles of dust, smoke or water vapour in the air that reduce visibility, thinner than fog: A brown haze hung over the valley all afternoon.[15][2][9]
  2. The shimmering of the air in very hot weather, which makes distant things look distorted: a heat haze.[9]
  3. A state of mental vagueness or confusion: He spent the morning in a haze after the long flight.[15][9]
  4. (medicine) Clouding of the cornea or lens of the eye.[9]

Verb

  1. To make or become hazy, often with over: The windows hazed over with steam.[15][2][9]
  2. (archaic or dialect) To drizzle; to be foggy.[2][8][9]

Word family

  • hazy
  • hazeless
  • smaze

haze2 harass, bully

Etymology

The verb meaning to harass is of unknown origin.[9][2][15] Several dictionaries derive it, perhaps, from an earlier sense, to frighten, borrowed from Middle French haser (“to irritate, annoy”),[3][4][5][7] itself of unknown origin;[5][7][4] the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and the OED only compare the French verb.[8][6][9] The OED records the French haser in the sense "to vex" from 1451, as a special use of haser, to roast, of disputed origin.[9] It and Hoad note the earlier hazen, to frighten or scold, recorded from 1593 in Peele.[9][6] Weekley thought the verb was connected with the mist, for reasons he found obscure, and compared French brimer (“to bully, haze”), a dialect form of brumer, from brume (“mist”).[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To frighten with a sudden noise: 1677, in Miege's French–English dictionary,[9] a sense later found in northern English regional speech.[9] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart date it to 1678,[2][4] and Johnson (1755), citing Ainsworth, defined it as "to fright one".[16]

Semantic evolution

In northern English and Scots dialect the verb came to mean to beat (1825) and to scold (1829);[9][8] the Dialect Dictionary records "to beat, thrash" in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.[13] At sea it meant to punish a crew by keeping them at hard, needless work, a sense made known by Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast (1840), which describes crews kept on deck in the rain picking old rope to pieces.[9][4][5] From there American student slang took it up in 1850 for forcing new students to perform humiliating or dangerous tasks,[9][4][5] a practice later extended to military recruits and fraternity pledges.[9][2] The general sense "to bully, tease, ridicule" is recorded from 1851.[9] In North America the verb has also meant to drive cattle or horses from horseback since 1877.[9]

Timeline

  • 1593 – the earlier verb hazen, to frighten.[9]
  • 1677 – to frighten with a sudden noise (obsolete by 1721).[9]
  • 1825 – to beat (regional).[9]
  • 1829 – to scold (regional).[9]
  • 1840 – nautical, to harass a crew with needless work.[9][4][5]
  • 1850 – to force new students to do humiliating tasks, in American student slang.[9][4][5]
  • 1851 – to bully, tease, ridicule.[9]
  • 1877 – to drive an animal from horseback.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To force a newcomer, such as a student, recruit or fraternity pledge, to perform humiliating, strenuous or dangerous tasks as part of an initiation; chiefly North American: The fraternity was suspended after members hazed two freshmen.[15][2][9]
  2. To bully, tease or ridicule someone; to harass with criticism.[2][9]
  3. (nautical) To punish a ship's crew by keeping them at unpleasant, unnecessary work.[2][9][8]
  4. (dialect) To frighten, scold or beat.[2][8][9]

Word family

  • hazer
  • hazing
  • hazen

Usage notes

Etymonline notes that English distinguishes haze, mist and fog more finely than most languages, where one word often covers all three and sometimes "cloud" as well, and suggests this may reflect the English climate.[5]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.