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haste

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haste¹

  • /heɪst/

Rhymes with -eɪst

Where it comes from

Blend of Middle English hasten (verb), (compare Dutch haasten, German hasten, Danish haste, Swedish hasta (“to hasten, rush”)) and Middle English hast (“haste”, noun), from Old French haste (whence French hâte), from Old Frankish *hai(f)st (“violence”), from Proto-Germanic *haifstiz (“struggle, conflict”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeyp- (“to ridicule, mock, anger”). Akin to Old Frisian hāst, hāste (“haste”), Old English hǣst (“violence”), Old English hǣste (“violent, impetuous, vehement”, adjective), Old Norse heift /heipt (“feud”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍆𐍃𐍄𐍃 (haifsts, “rivalry”). Cognate with German heftig (“vehement”) and Danish heftig (“vehement”).

noun hastes

  1. uncountable, usually Speed; swiftness; dispatch. We were running late so we finished our meal in haste.
  2. obsolete, uncountable, usually Urgency; sudden excitement of feeling or passion; precipitance; vehemence. I said in my haste, All men are liars.

verb hastes · hasting · hasted

  1. archaic, transitive To urge onward; to hasten. Baſſ. You may doe ſo, but let it be ſo haſted that ſupper be readie at the fartheſt by fiue of the clocke.
  2. archaic, intransitive To move with haste. The city is amaz'd, for Sylla hastes / To enter Rome with fury, sword and fire.

    Similar: hurry, rush, scamper, scramble, scurry

Haste²

Where it comes from

Metonymic occupation surname for someone who turned the spit for roasting meat, from Old French haste (“spit”).

proper noun Hastes

  1. A surname from Old French.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: hurry, hastiness, hurriedness, rushing, rush, rapidity, rapid, speediness, celerity, swiftness, quickly, speed, expeditiousness, hasty, dispatch, rash

Translations

Every language

noun speed, swiftness, dispatch

Españolprisa, premura, acucia, priesa, apuro
Portuguêspressa
Françaishâte
DeutschEile, Hast
Românăgrabă
Русскийспе́шка spéška

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MLA

"haste." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/haste. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

haste. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/haste

Chicago

"haste." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/haste.

BibTeX
@misc{haste_2026,
  title = {haste},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/haste},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}