Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps a specific sense development of Old English haca , assuming that the original sense of this word was ‘hook’ (see hake n.² and discussion at that entry), with allusion to the hooked shape of the lower jaw of the European hake. Perhaps compare Middle Low German haken kipper, Norwegian hakefisk salmon, trout (lit. ‘hookfish’), and also earlier haked n.Compare Anglo-Norman hake (c1400), post-classical Latin haka, haka (from early 13th cent. in British sources), both < English.

Etymology: Probably < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic haki , only as a personal name (Icelandic haki ), Norwegian hake , Old Swedish haki (Swedish hake ), Danish hage , all in the sense ‘hook’), cognate with Middle Dutch hāke , haec (Dutch haak ), Old Saxon haco (Middle Low German hāke ), Old High German hāgo , hāggo , hācko , hāko (Middle High German hāke , hāken , German Haken ), all in the sense ‘hook’, and probably also with Old English haca , in uncertain sense, perhaps ‘device used to fasten a door’ (see note) < an ablaut variant of the Germanic base of hook n.¹In forms with short vowel /a/ (especially in Scots) perhaps showing subsequent influence from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German. Attestation of the Old English cognate. Old English haca is attested only in early Old English glossaries, rendering pessul , post-classical Latin form of classical Latin pessulus bolt, especially a bolt used to fasten a door. This could imply use of the word in Old English to denote a device to fasten doors or the like, perhaps specifically by means of a hook. It has alternatively been suggested that the position of the gloss in the glossaries (preceded by a fish name, Old English flooc fluke n.¹) might indicate that it was originally intended as the name of a fish (compare hake n.¹ and the discussion of motivation as a fish name at that entry):eOE Épinal Gloss. (1974) 43 Platisa, flooc. Pessul, haca [eOE Corpus Gloss. haeca]. Currency of Old English haca in the sense ‘hook’ is perhaps also implied by its apparent occurrence as first element in a number of place names denoting curving topographical features, as e.g. a curved headland (Hacanos, North Riding, Yorkshire (731; now Hackness)), a river bend (Hacuuella, Essex (1086; now Hawkwell)), and hook-shaped hills, as Hacapenn, Devon (11th cent. in a copy of a 10th-cent. charter; now Hackpen Hill) and (an) Hacan penne, Wiltshire (939; now Hackpen Hill). Isolated reborrowing in Scots. Compare also Orkney Scots hack (also heck) footrest on a peat-spade (20th cent.), apparently showing an independent reborrowing < the unattested Norn cognate of the Scandinavian words listed above.

Etymology: Probably a variant of hack n.⁴ (although this is first attested later).hack n.⁴ shows senses corresponding to senses 2, 3, 4, with matching regional distribution. With sense 5 compare haking n.¹, perhaps a derivative of hack n.⁴

Etymology: < early modern Dutch haak (1524), shortened < haakbus hackbush n. Compare hackbut n., hackbush n.Compare early modern Dutch halfhaak (a1536) and early modern German halbhake (a1558): see half-hake n. and also demi-hake n.

Etymology: < Japanese hake brush (8th cent; 1603 as faqe in Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam), probably related to haku to daub, brush.

Etymology: < hake n.¹ Compare earlier haker n.