haste

Forms

haste f (oblique plural hastes)^[1]

• hast, hauste^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Frankish *haist (“violence, vehemence”), the etymon the FEW, the TLFi and Bloch and Wartburg give.^[3][4][5] Wiktionary traces the Frankish word to Proto-Germanic *haifstiz (“conflict, struggle”),^[1] and the TLFi compares Old High German heisti (“violent”).^[4] The DEAF adds Middle Dutch haest (“quick”) to the Germanic evidence.^[6] According to the TLFi, Gallo-Romance took the word over very early in the form hast,^[4] and the DHLF also notes that form early on.^[7] The REW lists the derivatives hastif and haster, which passed into Occitan and Old Italian,^[8] and German Hast was borrowed from French.^[4][5]

The DEAF calls the etymology disputed: Greive rejected the Frankish source and traced the word to Latin hasta (“spear”) instead, through a verb meaning to push or press from which the noun would have been formed back.^[6] The DEAF hesitates to follow him, since the sense it assumes for the Germanic family agrees well with the Romance senses.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEAF dates the noun from the second third of the 12th century, and its first quotation, like the TLFi's of about 1135, is the phrase en haste in the Couronnement de Louis: Trusqu'el chancel en est venuz en haste “he came in haste right up to the chancel”.^[6][4][9]

Semantic evolution

The bare noun for great speed in doing something appears in Thomas's Tristan, where a man is asked quel busuing e quel haste ait “what need and what haste he has”, and the TLFi first cites it from Erec et Enide in the sense of eagerness and hurry.^[6][4] From the late 12th century the word was used for rash hurry: the proverb Malvaise haste n'est preuz “bad haste does no good” runs from Ipomedon to the early 15th century, and fole haste meant impetuosity about 1200.^[6]

Middle French used it for urgency, for eagerness to do something and, with mauvaise, for rashness.^[10] The phrases a haste (1456–1467), à la hâte and avoir hâte de (both 1538) followed,^[4] and the modern spelling French hâte dates from the 16th century.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1135 – en haste in the Couronnement de Louis.^[4][9]
• 1150–1170 – the earliest Anglo-Norman record the AND cites.^[2]
• 1165–1170 – the bare noun in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[4]
• c. 1176 – the phrase a haste “quickly”.^[6]
• c. 1180 – the proverb Malvaise haste n'est preuz in Ipomedon.^[6]
• 1538 – à la hâte and avoir hâte de.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. haste, hurry, great speed in doing something.^[6][2]
2. urgency, pressing need; eagerness to do something.^[2][10]
3. rashness, undue hurry (fole haste, malvaise haste).^[6][2]
4. in the phrases en haste and a haste: quickly.^[6][2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word haste, first cites it from 1150–1170 and lists the spellings ast, hast and hauste.^[2] Its senses run from haste, urgency and speed to hastiness, with phrases for “quickly”, “as quickly as possible” and “to make haste”.^[2] English haste, recorded from the late 13th century, was taken from the Old French word.^[11]

Word family

• haster
• hasteier
• hastece
• hastance
• hastif

Descendants

• Middle French haste (→ French hâte)^[1]
• Walloon hausse^[1]
• Middle Dutch haest (borrowed; → Dutch haast)^[1]
• Middle English haste (borrowed; → English haste)^[1]

Usage notes

The dictionaries head the word haste2 (Tobler–Lommatzsch), haste1 (DEAF), haste 1 (AND) and haste (DMF), and the FEW treats it under *haist.^{[12][6][2][10][3]} The same spelling also stands for the noun meaning spear, lance or roasting spit, which the FEW and the TLFi derive from Latin hasta.^[13][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. haste
3. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16:123
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 357
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. haste1
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. hâte
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3990
9. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. CourLouisLe
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. haste
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:962
13. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4:390