bésta

See also: besta

Galician

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

Etymology

From Old Galician-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, editor, 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.