crone

Etymology

From Middle English crone, from Anglo-Norman carogne (compare central Old French charogne (a term of abuse, literally “carrion, carcass, old sheep, hag”), whence modern French charogne). Doublet of carrion.

noun

1. (archaic) An old woman.
2. An archetypal figure, a Wise Woman.
3. An ugly, evil-looking, or frightening old woman; a hag.
   With black unseeing eyes the old woman, the crone, stares at him and through him. Over and over she mutters a word that he cannot quite catch, something like Toomderoom. 2005, J. M. Coetzee, “Six”, in Slow Man, New York: Viking, page 36
4. (obsolete) An old ewe.
5. (obsolete) An old man, especially one who talks and acts like an old woman.
   A few old battered crones of office. 1844, Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby