Unhasty is from un- ('not') + hasty, from haste, from Old French haste ('haste, urgency'), of Germanic origin. Important recorded forms include un- (Old English), haste (Old French), and *haifstiz (Proto-Germanic). Morphologically, the un- element marks negation, reversal, removal, or deprivation, while the base supplies the action, quality, or state being denied or undone. The modern sense is largely compositional, with the historical elements narrowing into a stable English lexical item. In current use it covers not hurried; deliberate and measured. The wider family includes derived forms such as unhastily and related words such as haste, hasty, and hasten.