Hasty

How to spell hasty

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hasty

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hasty mean?

1. adjectiveDone or acting with excessive speed, often without enough thought or care.

Hasty in a sentence

• A hasty decision about the budget cost the firm thousands.

• He sent a hasty reply before reading the full email.

Where does hasty come from?

Language of origin: French

The word hasty grew out of the noun haste, which English borrowed from Old French haste during the 1200s, meaning speed or urgency. The French word itself came from a Germanic source related to the Frankish haifst, meaning violence or vehemence, so the original flavour was forceful rather than merely quick. By adding the native English adjective ending -y, meaning full of or characterised by, writers formed hasty to describe something done with haste, that is, in a hurry. Over the centuries the sense broadened from pure speed toward the modern overtone of being too quick and therefore careless or rash. A useful spelling note is that the silent e of haste vanishes before the -y, leaving the trap of remembering there is no e in the middle of hasty.

How the word is built

• haste (from Old French haste: speed, urgency)
• -y (adjective suffix: full of)