hypaspist
hypaspist noun: a type of lightly armoured foot soldier equipped with an aspis (shield) and spear.
Noun
hypaspist (plural hypaspists or hypaspistai)
- A type of lightly armoured foot soldier equipped with an aspis (shield) and spear.
- Meanwhile Darius had loosed his scythed cars, to whirl destruction into the ranks of the Companions and the hypaspists. But the archers and the Agrian spear-throwers received them with showers of spears and arrows; some of these active hillsmen seized the reins of the horses and pulled the riders...1900, John Bagnell Bury, A History of Greece: To the Death of Alexander the Great, Cambridge University Press, page 777
- 1988 [CUP], A. B. Bosworth, Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great, Cambridge University Press (Canto), 1993, page 259,
The other major component of the Macedonian infantry was the corps of hypaspists. This force had evolved from the old bodyguard of the Macedonian kings and its...
Forms of hypaspist
| plural | hypaspists |
|---|---|
| plural | hypaspistai |
Origin of hypaspist
From Ancient Greek ὑπασπιστής (hupaspistḗs, “shield bearer”), from ὑπό (hupó, “under”) + ἀσπίς (aspís, “shield”) + -τής (-tḗs, “suffix forming agent noun”).
Questions about hypaspist
- What does hypaspist mean?
- Hypaspist means a type of lightly armoured foot soldier equipped with an aspis (shield) and spear.
- What part of speech is hypaspist?
- Hypaspist is a noun.
- What is the plural of hypaspist?
- The plural of hypaspist is hypaspists.
Words near hypaspist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hypaspist (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “hypaspist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hypaspist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.