Pronounced /aɪnʃtant/ or /ɛɪnʃtɒnd/. Typically
non-capitalized if not used in languages other than
German.
A
german word, originally meaning something along the lines of "honorary joining" or "gift given upon entering service" (and also, a term in
tennis).
In Hungarian, the term is nowadays used to describe when someone steals something, though, it originally meant to take something by force, on the "right of the stronger" - essentially, might makes right, and the mighty have the right to all.
This description of the word originates from Hungarian writer Ferenc's Molnár's famous youth novel, "The Paul Street
Boys", where it was described as a word used by bigger kids, when they want to take a smaller kid's toys - basically saying that unless the toy in question is handed over, there will be trouble - a one-word note of seizure by force.
While originally an invented
re-appropriation, the word soon entered
popular slang, thanks to the novel's popularity, and is still widely used
today, albeit, it's meaning has now been altered to mean either taking something for your own use (when it is for public use), and hogging it to yourself, or used ironically, when someone takes something before you, simply on a "first come, first served" basis.
