> PGerm. *hang-/*ha:x- + *-ist- in German Hengst "stallion", ON
> hestr "horse", with various cognates in Baltic and Greek
Kuhn has several examples of roots that have been partially
through the Grimm shift which he nonetheless on other grounds
calls Nordwestblock. In this case, the -ist- doesn't match
anything properly Germanic, so tentatively I will identify it
with the -st- of Nordwestblock placenames, assuming it means
"someone connected with" (thus they would originally be
ethnonyms).
Torsten