hazy

Etymology

Its origin is unknown,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} and Barnhart calls it uncertain.^[9] Earlier spellings include hawsey and heysey.^[4][8][9] The revised OED takes it as apparently formed from English haze + -y,^[10] which reverses the older account: Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged make the noun haze, recorded from 1706, a back-formation from hazy,^[9][8][4] but the OED now has that noun from 1582, itself of unknown origin.^[10] Suggested sources include Old English hasu (“grey”), also haswe, favoured by Partridge and by Dictionary.com, which posits a variant of Middle English *haswy from haswig (“ashen, dusky”);^[11][8][12] the OED finds difficulties of date, form and meaning in that link.^[10] Etymonline also reports a connection with German Hase (“hare”), through sailors' superstitions about the animal.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the atmosphere or weather, covered or obscured by haze, originally a sailors' word: before 1584, in S. Borough, printed in Hakluyt's Principall Navigations.^[10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has 1582,^[4] and Barnhart, the 1989 edition of the OED and Etymonline begin with the 1620s form hawsey.^[9][13][8]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "dark; foggy; misty", and the 1989 edition of the OED notes that in the 17th and 18th centuries it meant simply "foggy".^[14][13] The sense of being befuddled, especially by drink, appears from 1673, in R. Hooke's diary, according to the revised OED, where the 1989 edition had 1824;^[10][13] Green's Dictionary of Slang lists "tipsy" from 1821–6 and "under the influence of a drug" from 1959.^[15] The sense "vague, ill-defined" followed in 1781, where the 1989 edition had 1831.^[10][13] In medicine, from 1818, it described a cloudy cornea or lens and blurred vision.^[10] In Scots it could mean dim-sighted, or muddled and weak in understanding.^[16]

Timeline

• before 1584 – of the atmosphere, covered by haze; a nautical term at first.^[10]
• 1625 – the form hawsey.^[9]
• 1673 – mentally confused, befuddled, especially with drink.^[10][15]
• 1781 – lacking clarity, vague.^[10]
• 1818 – in medicine, of the cornea or lens, cloudy.^[10]
• 1959 – under the influence of a drug.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Obscured or made dim by haze; misty: a hazy morning over the harbour.^[4][3][10]
2. Not clear in thought or detail; vague: She has only a hazy memory of the journey.^[4][3][10]
3. Clouded, as a glass surface or a liquid; in medicine, of the cornea or lens, cloudy.^[4][10]
4. (colloquial) Slightly confused, especially from drink or a drug.^[10][15][5]

Word family

• hazily
• haziness
• unhazy

Related words

• haze

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ 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)