swastika
See also Swastika
English
Hindu swastika.
Nazi swastika
Etymology
From Sanskrit स्वस्तिक (svástika), from सु (sú, “good, well”) + अस्ति (ásti-), a verbal abstract of the root of the verb "to be", svasti thus meaning "well-being" — and the diminutive suffix क (-ka); hence "little thing associated with well-being", corresponding roughly to "lucky charm". First attestation in English in 1871, Sanskritism replacing Greek term gammadion. From 1932 specifically referring to the emblem of the Nazi party; German Hakenkreuz.
Noun
swastika (plural swastikas)
- A cross with arms of equal length all bent halfway along at a 90° angle to the right or to the left, used as a religious symbol by various ancient and modern civilizations, and adopted more recently (with arms angled to the right) as a symbol of Nazism and fascism.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Sending of Dana Da’, In Black and White, Folio Society 2005, p. 423-4:
- This was signed by Dana Da, who added pentacles and pentagrams, and a crux ansata, and half-a-dozen swastikas, and a Triple Tau to his name, just to show that he was all he laid claim to be.
- 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 270:
- It is clear from archaeological finds that they enjoyed wearing Christian crosses, though they might enliven these with such symbols as the Indian swastika which Buddhists had brought them.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Sending of Dana Da’, In Black and White, Folio Society 2005, p. 423-4:
Synonyms
- Black Spider
- (in heraldry): crooked cross, cross cramponned, cross cramponnée, cross cramponny
- cross gammadion, gammadion, gammation
- (chiefly in architecture and heraldry) fylfot
- hooked cross
- sauwastika, sauvastika
- sun wheel
- tetraskelion
- Thor's hammer
- twisted cross
Translations
a cross with arms of equal length all bent halfway along at a 90° angle
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