Hasty

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈheɪsti/

Definitions

1. Done or made with excessive speed or urgency, often resulting in carelessness or poor judgment
2. Performed with great speed and urgency, usually leading to careless outcomes or impulsive choices
3. Completed rapidly without sufficient consideration, often causing mistakes or overlooking details

Etymology: Hasty looks like a plain adjective built from "haste" and the suffix "-y," and in a sense it is. But the source of "haste" is more tangled than that. Scholars are unsure whether "hasty" was simply coined in Middle English from "haste" plus "-y," a pattern shared across the Germanic languages (Dutch "haastig," German "hastig," Swedish "hastig"), or whether it is a blend with an older Middle English word, "hastive," which came from Old French "hastif" (modern French "hâtif," meaning early or premature). That Old French word traces back to a Frankish term, "*haifst," meaning "violence." So the notion of speed in this family of words may once have carried a sense of force or aggression rather than mere quickness. The two lines, native Germanic and borrowed French, appear to have converged in English, though the exact mechanism is uncertain.

Synonyms: rash, hurried, impulsive, precipitous, speedy

Antonyms: slow, deliberate, careful, cautious, measured