hoist

Etymology

It is an alteration of the older verb hoise,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} probably because the past tense and participle hoised were taken for the stem, as with graft for graff.^[2][4][8][9] That verb, recorded from 1490, is inherited from Middle English hysse, also hyce,^{[2][3][10][5]} probably borrowed from Middle Dutch hyssen (“to hoist”),^[3][10][9] related to Low German hissen and Old Norse hissa upp (“to raise”).^[3][10] The word is a sailors' term found in most European languages, among them Dutch hijsen, Danish heise, Swedish hissa, French hisser, Italian issare and Spanish izar, and it is not known which language it arose in;^[3][2][11] the English forms are earlier than any recorded elsewhere.^[2][5] Hoad notes that it appears early as a cry used in hauling,^[5] and Partridge suggests it may be echoic of such cries.^[12] Johnson derived it from French hausser,^[13] a link Skeat rejected.^[9] American heist is a variant of the word.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To raise aloft, set up on high: 1548, in Udall's translation of Erasmus's Paraphrase,^[2][10] the 1540s in Etymonline.^[3] The older form hoise is recorded from 1490, in Caxton's Eneydos, of hoisting sail.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

From 1578 the verb was used specifically of raising something by tackle or another mechanical device,^[2] and since 1697 of hoisting a flag.^[2] The sense "to lift and carry away" was common from about 1550 to 1750,^[3][2] and an early 18th-century use was to lift a boy onto another's back to be flogged.^[2] In Hamlet (1604), hoist with his own petar uses hoist as the past participle of hoise: blown up by one's own bomb, hence undone by one's own scheme.^[3][2] Criminals used the hoist for shoplifting or housebreaking from 1703,^[14][2] and the verb for breaking into a building, stealing or shoplifting from 1708.^[2][14] The noun, an act of hoisting, appears in 1654,^[2][3] then for flags hoisted together as a signal (1805) and for an apparatus for hoisting, such as a lift in a mine or factory (1835).^[2][3] In dialect the verb had forms such as heist, hist and hyste.^[15]

Timeline

• 1490 – hoise, to raise a sail.^[2]
• 1548 – hoist, to raise aloft.^[2][10]
• c. 1550 – to lift and carry off (obsolete by 1763).^[2]
• 1578 – to raise by tackle or machinery.^[2]
• 1604 – hoist with his own petar, in Shakespeare's Hamlet.^[2][3]
• 1654 – noun, an act of hoisting.^[2][3]
• 1697 – to raise a flag.^[2]
• 1703 – noun, the hoist, shoplifting or housebreaking, in criminals' slang.^[14]
• 1708 – verb, to break into a building, to steal, in criminals' slang.^[2]
• 1805 – noun, a number of flags hoisted together as a signal.^[2]
• 1835 – noun, an apparatus for hoisting; a lift.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To raise or lift, especially with ropes, pulleys or other machinery: The crew hoisted the crates onto the deck.^[16][7][2]
2. To raise a flag or sail.^[7][2]
3. (slang) To shoplift or steal.^[14][2]
4. hoist with one's own petard: harmed by one's own scheme against others.^[16][2]

Noun

1. An apparatus for hoisting, such as a crane, winch or elevator.^[16][7][2]
2. An act of hoisting; a lift or boost: She gave her brother a hoist over the fence.^[16][7][2]
3. (nautical) The height of a sail or flag, or a group of flags hoisted together as a signal.^[16][2]
4. (slang) Shoplifting or housebreaking.^[14][2]

Word family

• hoister
• unhoisted

Related words

• heist
• petard

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins