swastika

See also: Swastika

English

Wikipedia

Hindu swastika.

Nazi swastika

Etymology

From Sanskrit स्वस्तिक (svástika), from सु (sú, “good, well”) + अस्ति (ásti-), a verbal abstract of the root of the verb "to be", svasti thus meaning "well-being" — and the diminutive suffix क (-ka); hence "little thing associated with well-being", corresponding roughly to "lucky charm". First attestation in English in 1871, a Sanskritism that replaced the Grecian term gammadion. From 1932 onwards it often referred specifically to the visually similar hooked cross (German: Hakenkreuz) emblem popularized by the Nazi party.

Noun

swastika (plural swastikas)

1. A cross with arms of equal length all bent halfway along at a 90° angle to the right or to the left, used as a religious symbol by various ancient and modern civilizations, and adopted more recently (with arms angled to the right) as a symbol of Nazism and fascism.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Sending of Dana Da’, In Black and White (Folio Society 2005), page 423-4:

     This was signed by Dana Da, who added pentacles and pentagrams, and a crux ansata, and half-a-dozen swastikas, and a Triple Tau to his name, just to show that he was all he laid claim to be.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity (Penguin 2010), page 270:

     It is clear from archaeological finds that they enjoyed wearing Christian crosses, though they might enliven these with such symbols as the Indian swastika which Buddhists had brought them.

Synonyms

• Black Spider
• (in heraldry): crooked cross, cross cramponned, cross cramponnée, cross cramponny
• cross gammadion, gammadion, gammation
• (chiefly in architecture and heraldry) fylfot
• hooked cross
• sauwastika, sauvastika
• sun wheel
• tetraskelion
• Thor's hammer
• twisted cross

Translations

a cross with arms of equal length all bent halfway along at a 90° angle

• Arabic: صليب معقوف m (Saliib ma3quuf)
• Armenian: սվաստիկա (svastika)
• Belarusian: свастыка f (svástyka)
• Bulgarian: свастика (bg) f (svástika)
• Catalan: esvàstica f, creu gammada f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 卍 (maan6), 卐 (maan6)

  Mandarin: 卍 (zh) (wàn), 卐 (zh) (wàn), 卍字 (zh) (wànzì), 卐字 (wànzì)

• Czech: svastika f
• Danish: svastika, hagekors n
• Dutch: swastika, hakenkruis n
• Esperanto: svastiko
• Estonian: haakrist
• Faroese: hakakrossur m
• Finnish: hakaristi (fi)
• French: svastika (fr) m, croix gammée (fr) f
• Georgian: სვასტიკა (svastika)
• German: Swastika (de) f, Hakenkreuz (de) n
• Greek: σβάστικα (el) f (svástika)
• Hebrew: צלב הקרס m (tslav ha-keres)
• Hindi: स्वस्तिक m (svastik)
• Hungarian: horogkereszt (hu)
• Icelandic: hakakross (is) m
• Italian: svastica (it) f, croce gammata (it) f
• Japanese: 卍 (ja) (まんじ, man-ji), 卐 (ja) (まんじ, man-ji)
• Korean: 만자문 (man-jamun) (卍字紋)

• Latvian: svastika f, kāškrusts n
• Lithuanian: svastika f
• Luxembourgish: Hakekräiz n
• Mongolian: хасс (hass)
• Navajo: náhookǫs, náhootałii
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hakekors n, svastika m

  Nynorsk: hakekors n, hakekross m, svastika m

• Polish: swastyka (pl) f
• Portuguese: suástica (pt) f, cruz gamada f
• Russian: свастика (ru) f (svástika), солнцеворо́т (ru) m (solncevorót)
• Samogitian: svastėka f
• Sanskrit: स्वस्तिक m (svástika)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: свастика f, коловрат m, кукасти крст m, сварзица f

  Roman: svastika f, kolovrat m, kukasti krst m, svarzica f

• Silesian: hakenkrojc
• Slovak: svastika f
• Spanish: esvástica (es) f, cruz gamada f, suástica (es) f
• Swedish: hakkors n, svastika (sv) c
• Turkish: gamalı haç (tr)
• Ukrainian: свастика f (svástyka)
• Urdu: سوستک m (svastik)
• Vietnamese: chữ Vạn (字卍)

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Dutch

Noun

swastika f, m (plural swastika's)

1. swastika