hasta

Meaning

a spear, lance, pike, carried by soldiers and used for thrusting

Concepts

spear

rod

pole

staff

spar

stave

bar

handle

shaft

stake

cane

baton

stick

pike

lance

fishing rod

club

Synonyms

contus

asser

trudis

arundo

baculum

baculus

lancea

aclys

Translations

Stange

lancia

lança

barra

speer

stang

barra

Speer

vara

lance

barra

Barre

pal

lanza

Pronounced as (IPA)

[ˈhas.ta]

Etymology

Disputed. Michiel de Vaan suggests a possible Proto-Italic form Proto-Italic *hastā-. It is also conjectured to be from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰasto- or *ǵʰasdʰo- (“branch ~ spear, sharp spine”) (see below for Indo-European cognates), but the phonetics are problematic. Likely of ultimately non-Indo-European substrate origin.
Cognates include Irish gad (“withe”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌶𐌳𐍃 (gazds, “spine, aculeus”) and Old Norse gaddr (“spear, goad”) (loaned into English as gad); the Celtic and Germanic forms point to a PIE pre-form *ǵʰasdʰo-. A relationship with Sanskrit हस्त (hasta, “hand”) (see hir) is unlikely. A relationship with Albanian heshtë, ushtë and shtijë (all meaning “spear”) is uncertain.
Also compared to Umbrian hostatu (acc.pl.m.), hostatir (dat.pl.m), of unknown meaning, but the root vowel /o/ does not match the Latin /a/.