subhastation
subhastation noun: a public sale or auction required by law, especially one in Germany or neighbouring territories.
Noun
subhastation (countable and uncountable, plural subhastations)
- A public sale or auction required by law, especially one in Germany or neighbouring territories.
- One of the best parts of their Law is the way of Selling Estates, which is likewise practised in Switzerland, and is called Subhastation, from the Roman Custom of selling Sub hasta.[1713, Gilbert Burnet, A Description of Geneva
- In the class of privileges [of clergy] belongs the benefit of competence, in consequence of which, in matters of debts and subhastation, the clerical person must be left the means of living according to his station.1879, John McClintock, James Strong, “Privilege”, in Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, volume 8
Forms of subhastation
| plural | subhastations |
|---|
Origin of subhastation
Borrowed from German Subhastation or French subhastation, from Latin subhastātiō, from sub hastā (literally “under the spear”). Compare Spanish subasta (“auction”).
Questions about subhastation
- What does subhastation mean?
- Subhastation means a public sale or auction required by law, especially one in Germany or neighbouring territories.
- What part of speech is subhastation?
- Subhastation is a noun.
- What is the plural of subhastation?
- The plural of subhastation is subhastations.
Words near subhastation in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: subhastation (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: “subhastation.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subhastation. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.