see|Swastika
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Image:HinduSwastika.svg|thumb|right|100 px|Hindu swastika.
English

Etymology
From Sanskrit स�वस�ति� (svastika). First attestation in English 1871 (from 1932 specifically referring to the emblem of the Nazi party, German Hakenkreuz).

Noun
en-noun

1. 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.

Synonyms
Black Spider
(in heraldry): crooked cross, cross cramponned, cross cramponnée, cross cramponny
cross gammadion, gammadion, gammation<!-- as each arm resembles the Greek letter � (gamma). (Compare croiz gammée in Old French and croix gammée in French; cruz gamada in Spanish.)-->
(chiefly in architecture and heraldry) fylfot<!-- (meaning "four feet", chiefly in heraldry and architecture). (See w:Fylfot in Wikipedia for a discussion of the etymology.)-->
hooked cross<!-- as in Dutch (hakenkruis), German (Hakenkreuz), Finnish (hakaristi), Norwegian (Hakekors) and Italian (croce uncinata).-->
sauwastika, sauvastika
sun wheel<!-- (German Sonnenrad), a name also used as a synonym for the sun cross.-->
tetraskelion<!-- Greek "four legged", especially when composed of four conjoined legs (compare triskelion).-->
Thor's hammer<!-- from its supposed association with Thor, the Norse god of thunder, but this may be a misappropriation of a name that properly belongs to a Y-shaped or T-shaped symbol. (See Thomas Wilson in the Wikipedia article for "swastika".)-->

Spanish: esvástica f, svastika#Spanish|svastika f, swastika f
Swedish: hakkors n, svastika#Swedish|svastika c
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Category:Sanskrit derivations
Category:Nazism

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• 2007-12-30 00:05 - Keene -

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