Forms: α. (2, 8 higra), 7 higre, 7– hygre, hyger. β. (? 6) 7 agar, (9 dial. ager), 7–9 eagre, 8 eger, egre, (9 ægir, ægre, pseudo-arch. eygre), 7– eager, eagre. [Of unknown etymology. The conjecture that connects it with the OE. éaʓor, éʓor, occurring in comb., app. with sense ‘flood, ocean,’ is untenable, because the OE. ʓ in such a position would have become y in mod.E. Nor can it be a. ON. ǽgir ocean, sea-god, as the inflexional -r would in that case have disappeared.
The identity of eagre with higre (latinized as higra by William of Malmesbury) seems clear from the sense, but is difficult to account for phonologically. The 17th (? 16th)-c. spelling agar seems to be a phonetic rendering of this or its antecedent. Identity with ACKER is not clearly indicated by the sense, and is very doubtful.]
A tidal wave of unusual height, caused by the rushing of the tide up a narrowing estuary; = BORE sb.3 Chiefly with reference to the Humber (and Trent) and the Severn.
α. [c. 1125. Will of Malmesb., Gest. Pontific (Rolls), 292. [The Bore on the Severn] Nautæ certe gnari, cum vident illam Higram (sic enim Anglici vocant) venire, navem obvertunt, et per medium secantes violentiam ejus eludunt.]
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., vii. 101. With whose tumultuous waues Shut vp in narrower bounds, the Higre wildly raues.
1623. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wherry-Ferry Voy., Wks. II. 11/1.
| It [the Flood] hath lesse mercy then Beare, Wolfe, or Tyger, | |
| And in those Countries it is call’d the Hyger. |
1714. Steele, Lover, No. 33 (1715), 228. Such a Roll of the Tides as the Sailors corruptly call the Higre, instead of the Eager, and is very dangerous to all Ships in its way.
1817. Stark, Hist. Gainsburgh (1843), 522. A curious phenomenon is observed in the Trent called the Eagre or Hygre.
β. [1592. Lyly, Gallathea, I. i. B ij. [The scene is beside the Humber] Hee [Neptune] sendeth a Monster called the Agar, against whose comming the waters rore, the fowles flie away [etc.].]
1647. Sprigge, Anglia Rediv. (1854), 76. A sudden surprisal of the tide called the Eager.
1650. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep. (ed. 2), VII. xiii. 312. Those Agars and impetuous flows.
1685. Dryden, Threnodia August., iv. 7. His manly heart … like an Eagre rode in triumph o’er the tide.
1759. Johnson, Idler, No. 49, ¶ 12. He forded rivers where the current roared like the Egre of the Severn.
1851. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., I. 323. The Eager or eau-guerre, so remarkable in the mouth of the Severn.
1862. Dana, Man. Geol., 653. In the eagre of the Amazon, the whole tide passes up the stream in five or six waves, following one another in rapid succession, each twelve to fifteen feet high.
1863. Jean Ingelow, High Tide, in Poems, 167. Lindis … at the eygre’s breast Flung uppe her weltering walls again.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 87. He would … get on a pink and go up wi’ th’ Ager.
