hissen.
to hoist (a flag or sail)
Meaning & usage
to hoist (a flag or sail)
Where this word comes from
16th century, from Middle Low German hissen, of unknown origin. Possibly the same word as Middle Low German hissen, hitzen, Middle Dutch hissen (modern Dutch ophitsen), Old French hicier, all meaning “to set hounds on”. These can be compared to Proto-Germanic *hatjaną (whence High German hetzen), but the phonetics are highly problematic. Therefore the group is usually considered imitative, immediately comparable to English hiss. The use for “hoisting” appears first in the mid-15th century in Middle Dutch hîsen (cf. modern Dutch hijsen) and in the Middle English nautical interjection hissa (cf. Scots heeze, English hoise, whence hoist). The word then quickly spread to other Germanic as well as Romance languages. Such cognates include Danish hejse, French hisser, Spanish izar, Italian issare.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.