Justed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Fought on horseback with a lance against an opponent in a medieval tournament contest
2. Engaged in a formal mounted combat with lances, as knights once did at tournaments
3. Contended with an opponent on horseback in the manner of a medieval knightly tilt

Etymology: "Justed" is the past tense of "just", used in the sense of "to adjust" or "to set straight" in older and dialect English, a sense that has largely faded. The verb is a relative of the adjective "just", which passed into English from Old French "juste", ultimately from Latin "iūstus", meaning "just, lawful, rightful, true, due, proper". That Latin adjective is itself tied to "iūs", meaning "law, right", so the core idea behind the word is conformity to what is lawful and proper. The verb is a different matter. Its history is tangled with "joust", the word for a medieval tournament contest between armoured knights. Both forms are commonly linked to Latin "iuxta", meaning "near, besides", which fits the idea of bringing two things close together or lining them up. Sense drifted from "bring into alignment" toward "fit exactly" and then toward "adjust", so "justed" carries the sense of having been brought into exact position.

Synonyms: jousted, tilted