bésta

bésta

See also: besta

Galician

15th-century depiction. Santa María de Labrada, Guitiriz, Galicia.

Etymology

From Old Galician and Old Portuguese baesta (“crossbow”) (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin ballista, from Ancient Greek βαλλίστρα (ballístra). Cognate with Portuguese besta and Spanish ballesta.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɛs̺t̪ɐ]

Noun

bésta f (plural béstas)

1. crossbow
   • 1295, R. Lorenzo (ed.), La traducción gallega de la Crónica General y de la Crónica de Castilla. Ourense: I.E.O.P.F., page 17:

     et da Torre do Ouro esso meesmo, cõ tra[bu]quetes que y tĩjnã, que os aqueixauã ademays, et cõ beestas de torno et de outras muytas maneyras

     And the same from the Torre del Oro [a castle in Seville]: they were attacking them with little catapults and winched crossbows, and in many other ways

2. hock (the tarsal joint of a digitigrade quadruped)

Derived terms

• besteiro
• Besteiros
• Bestilleiros

References

• “baesta” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
• “beest” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “bésta” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “bésta” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.