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hasty

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English hasty, of obscure origin. Likely a new formation in Middle English equivalent to haste +‎ -y, found as in other Germanic languages (Old Frisian hâstich, Middle Dutch haestich (> Dutch haastig (“hasty”)), Middle Low German hastich (“hasty”), German hastig, Danish hastig, Swedish hastig (“hasty”)); otherwise possibly representing an assimilation to the foregoing of Middle English hastive, hastif (> English hastive), from Old French hastif (Modern French hâtif), from Frankish *haifst (“violence”), ultimately of the same Germanic origin.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈheɪsti/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪsti

Adjective

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hasty (comparative hastier, superlative hastiest)

  1. Acting or done in haste; hurried or too quick; speedy due to having little time.
    Synonym: brash
    Without much thinking about it they made a hasty decision to buy it.
    1. Made in haste.
      • 1577, B. Googe, Herebach's Husb., IV, page 184 (quoted in the NED):
        Sommer Hony, or hasty hony, made in thirty dales after the tenth of June.
      • 2013 October 8, Robert F. Jones, Deadville: A Novel, Skyhorse, →ISBN:
        [We] built a hasty fort of sawlogs and boulders back of our campsite, well stocked with powder and ball, water and meat, in case there was trouble.
    2. Ripening or coming to maturity early.
      • 1826 [1626], Francis Bacon, The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England: Containing Sylva sylvarum: or, a natural history, In ten centuries, page 209:
        ... how to make the trees themselves more tall, more spread, and more hasty and sudden than they use to be.
      • 1767, Robert Vansittart, Certain Ancient Tracts Concerning the Management of Landed Property Reprinted, page 14:
        I speke not of hasty pees, for they be sowen before Christmasse
    3. Eager or impatient to act or get something done.
      • 1877 [????], No-body, No-body and some-body [a comedy. supplied in MS.]:
        ... the Queene is not so hasty of your death.
      • 1882, Sir Sidney L. Lee, The Boke of Duke Huon of Burdeaux,., page 227:
        ... how is it that ye be so hasty to […] departe hens?
    4. Characterized by undue quickness of action, and thus lacking careful thought or consideration; rash, precipitate.
      a hasty decision, a hasty assertion
      • 1839 [?], Thomas Hobbes, The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, page 435:
        ... to give too hasty belief to pretended miracles, […]
  2. (archaic) Speedy, quick, rapid (without necessarily lacking time).
    • 1895 [1511], Pietro Martire d' Anghiera, Sebastian Münster, The First Three English Books on America, Westminster : A. Constable:
      This people hathe a swyfte hasty speche.
    • 1861, Alexander Irvine, The Phytologist: A Botanical Journal, page 144:
      Thys wolfbayne of all poysones is the most hastye poison.
  3. Irritable, irascible; quickly or easily excited to anger.
    his hasty temperament
    • 1840, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, page 321:
      The natural disposition of Theodosius was hasty and choleric; […]
    • 1883 [1534], The Boke of Duke Huon of Burdeux, Done Into English by Sir John Bourchier, Lord Berners, and Printed by Wynkyn de Worde about 1534, page 145:
      ... I spake eny hasty worde  […]
    • 1891, Arthur's Home Magazine, page 411:
      To say that such a one has rather a hasty temper, or that he is difficult to get on with, or that he is too fond of having his own way, is hardly, in the opinion of many people, to say anything really to his discredit; […]
  4. (of rain) Heavy, violent.
    • 1862, James Beart SIMONDS, The Rot in Sheep: Its Nature, Cause, Treatment, and Prevention. Illustrated, Etc, page 15:
      Hasty rain liberates flukes' eggs from sheep's droppings, and splashes them round about upon the circumjacent herbage; but healthy sheep, protected by their nose, are in little danger here of swallowing these eggs  […]
    • 1990, David Golightly Harris, Piedmont Farmer: The Journals of David Golightly Harris, 1855-1870, Univ. of Tennessee Press, →ISBN, page 149:
      ... hasty rain. When we came home we found Cousin Gwinn Harris and wife at our home. In the evening there was still another rain. These rains are all alike (hard and hasty). […]
    • 2020 August 20, Evie Grace, The Golden Maid, Random House, →ISBN:
      ' […] rain divert me, although it is coming down hasty.'

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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  • Joseph Wright, editor (1902), “HASTY”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume III (H–L), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC. " 2. Heavy, violent, gen. used of rain. Also used advb. Glo. What hasty rain (A.B.). Ken.1 It did come down hasty, an' no mistake. Sur. The rain cluttered down hasty (T.S.C.). Sus. The rain was not so hasty as it had been, N. & Q. (1882) 6th S. vi. 447; The rain come down terr'ble hasty surelye, N. & Q. (1883) 6th S. vii. 155."

Anagrams

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