Etymology

hoist

H4O1I1S1T1

Today it means: To raise; to lift; to elevate (especially, to raise or lift to a desired elevation, by means of tackle or pulley, said of a sail, a flag, a heavy package or weight). Full definition →

Middle Dutch hisen ← Germanic
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The story

  1. Germanic · derived from
  2. Middle Dutch · borrowed fromhisen“to hoist”
  3. English todayhoist

Alteration of earlier hoise (“to hoist”), apparently based on the past tense forms, from Middle Dutch hisen (“to hoist”). Compare modern Dutch hijsen (“to hoist”), German hissen (“to hoist”), Danish hejse (“to hoist”). Compare also French hisser (“to hoist”), Galician isar (“to hoist”), Spanish izar (“to hoist”), Catalan hissar (“to hoist”), Italian issare (“to hoist”), Portuguese içar (“to hoist”), Sicilian jisari (“to hoist”), all borrowed from a Germanic source.

Words from the same roots

Middle Dutchhisen all →

hoise

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.