haste

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English haste, also hast,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French haste (“haste, urgency”) (modern hâte),^[4][5][6][7] recorded in Anglo-Norman from about 1150.^[8] The French word is probably of Germanic origin:^[5][9][10] Etymonline and Klein derive it from Frankish *haifst (“violence”),^[4][2] and Barnhart likewise traces it to Frankish,^[6] ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haifstiz (“struggle, conflict”).^[4][11][12] Its relatives are Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍆𐍃𐍄𐍃 (haifsts, “strife”),^[4][5][2] Old English hǣst (“violence, fury”) and the adjective hǣste (“violent, vehement”),^[5][13][7] Old High German heisti (“powerful, violent”) and Old Norse heipt (“feud, hatred”);^[7][2][5] Old English hǣst did not survive into Middle English.^[6][14] Barnhart connects the Germanic word with Proto-Indo-European *ḱēibh-,^[6] and Wiktionary with *ḱeyp- (“to ridicule, mock, anger”).^[11] The OED notes that the Germanic etymology has been questioned on grounds of meaning, and that some derive the French word instead from Latin hasta (“staff, spear”), through an unrecorded verb meaning "to push, poke".^[5] French haste was borrowed back into the Germanic languages, giving Dutch haast, German Hast and Swedish hast, which therefore mean "hurry" and not "violence".^[5][6][14] The verb is inherited from Middle English hasten, borrowed from Old French haster, from the noun.^[15][5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Speed of movement or action, hurry: first in the romance King Horn, in a manuscript of about 1300 of a text from about 1225;^[5][6] Etymonline dates it to the late 13th century.^[4] The verb, to make haste, is recorded from about 1300 as well.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense "need for quick action, urgency" followed about 1300.^[4][5] From the late 14th century the word also meant excessive speed, rashness.^[4][5] The phrase in haste is as old as the noun, and an obsolete use of it meant "soon, shortly" until 1704.^[5] Chaucer's Tale of Melibee has an early form of the proverb that hurrying spoils progress, later more haste, less speed;^[5] make haste slowly is recorded from 1565,^[5] and to make haste, to hurry, from the 15th century,^[5] by the 1530s according to Etymonline.^[4] Johnson (1755) gave "hurry; speed; nimbleness; precipitation".^[16] The verb haste has been largely replaced since the 16th century by hasten, recorded from the 1560s, and survives mainly in literary use and in the Scottish farewell haste ye back, recorded from about 1770.^{[4][5][6][17]} In Scotland, Ireland and the Lake District the verb was still used in the 19th century, often in the imperative, haste ye.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – noun, speed, hurry, in King Horn; also in haste.^[5]
• c. 1300 – verb, to make haste.^[5]
• c. 1330 – verb, to urge on, hurry along.^[5]
• late 14th century – excessive speed, rashness.^[4][5]
• c. 1405 – the proverb later known as more haste, less speed, in Chaucer.^[5]
• 1565 – make haste slowly.^[5]
• 1560s – the verb hasten begins to replace haste.^[4][6]
• c. 1770 – haste ye back (Scottish).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Speed or quickness of movement or action; hurry: In her haste she left the door unlocked.^[19][15][5]
2. Excessive or careless speed; rashness: Decisions made in haste are often regretted.^[19][15][5]
3. Eagerness or need to act quickly; urgency.^[19][15][5]
4. make haste: to hurry (now somewhat archaic).^[19][5]

Verb

1. (literary) To move or act quickly; to hasten: They hasted home before the rain.^[19][15][5]
2. (archaic) To urge on or speed up.^[15][5][20]

Word family

• hasteful
• hastefully
• hasteless
• hastelessness
• hasten
• hastily
• hasty

Usage notes

A separate word haste, the heart, liver and lungs of a pig, was still heard from older people in Suffolk in the 19th century; it comes from Old French haste, a roasting spit, and is related to haslet.^[18][8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
3. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
14. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
18. ^ 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)
19. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press