hasty

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hasti,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French hasti, a variant of hastif (“swift, hurried; rash”),^[4][3][5][6] from the noun haste (“haste, urgency”).^[4][3][7] The Anglo-Norman hastif is recorded from the early 12th century.^[8] The OED takes the English word as partly a variant of the earlier hastive, from the same French adjective, and partly as haste with the suffix -y;^[9] Etymonline likewise treats it as haste with -y, replacing or nativizing hastif, and thinks the French form hasti may have shaped it.^[7] Klein notes that the French ending -i was confused in English with the suffix -y.^[3] The French noun is from Frankish *haifst (“violence”) or another Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *haifstiz, which also gave Old English hæste (“violent, vehement”).^[7][3] The OED compares Dutch haastig and Middle Low German hāstich.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Speedy, quick, swift in action: about 1330, in the Short Metrical Chronicle.^[9] Etymonline dates the senses "urgent" and "quick-tempered" to the mid-14th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word joined speed and temper: "quickly roused to anger" is recorded from before 1350,^[9] and words spoken in sudden anger were hasty by about 1375.^[9] The sense "rash, too quick, without enough thought", now the main one, is recorded from before 1375, in William of Palerne.^[9] In Middle English a crop that ripened early in the season could also be hasty (1338–1866), a sense now obsolete.^[9] "Requiring haste, urgent" appears about 1400 in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,^[9] and is the sense in hasty pudding, a pudding made quickly.^[7][9] The plain sense "speedy" became archaic except for haste forced by lack of time ("hurried"), recorded from 1560.^[9] Johnson (1755) gave "quick, speedy" and "passionate, vehement" among its senses.^[10] In Scotland, chiefly in Caithness, hasty was also a deadly disease of cattle.^[9][11]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – speedy, quick, swift.^[9]
• 1338 – early-ripening (obsolete by 1866).^[9]
• before 1350 – quick-tempered, irritable.^[9]
• before 1375 – rash, done without enough care or thought.^[9]
• c. 1400 – urgent; quickly made or prepared.^[9]
• 1560 – hurried because of little time.^[9]
• 1683 – noun, a disease of cattle, in Scotland.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Done or made in a hurry; hurried: a hasty lunch before the meeting.^[4][12][9]
2. Too quick; rash, done without enough thought: a hasty decision she later regretted.^[12][4][9]
3. Quick-tempered; showing sudden anger: hasty words.^[12][9]
4. (archaic) Rapid in movement or action; swift.^[4][9]
5. (obsolete, 1338–1866) Ripening early.^[9][13]

Word family

• hastily
• hastiness
• overhasty
• unhasty
• hasty pudding

Related words

• haste
• hasten
• hastive

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press