enhiesto

Inherited from Old Spanish enfiesto, most likely inherited from Latin īnfestus. For the semantic development, Coromines and Pascual point out the use of īnfestus in classical Latin to describe spears in attack position and standards during marches, a usage that survives into Old Spanish alongside the new metaphorical usage that survives until today.

• Rhymes: -esto
• Syllabification: en‧hies‧to

enhiesto (feminine enhiesta, masculine plural enhiestos, feminine plural enhiestas)

1. erect, upright
   • 2017 September, “Muerte de un banquero. Deia, Noticias de Bizkaia”, in Deia‎:

     Algo me dice que tanto si se apioló como si le apiolaron, se fue al otro barrio con el mentón enhiesto, convencido de que nos hacía una faena inmensa al condenarnos a vivir el resto de nuestras vidas sin su presencia.

     Something tells me that whether he killed himself or was killed, he went to the hereafter with his chin upright, convinced that he was giving us an immense hurdle by condemning us to live the rest of our lives without his presence.

• Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1984) “enhiesto”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume II (Ce–F), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 629

• “enhiesto”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10