JUST, a sportive kind of combat on horseback, man against man, armed with lances. The word is by some derived from the French joust, of the Latin juxta, because the combatants fought near one another. Salmasius derives it from the modern Greek zoustra, or rather zoures, which is used in this sense by Nicephorus Gregorius. Others derive it from justa, which in the corrupt age of the Latin tongue was used for this exercise, by reason it was supposed a more just and equal combat than the tournament.
The difference between jasts and tournaments consists in this, that the latter is the genus, of which the former is only a species. Tournaments included all kinds of military sports and engagements made out of gallantry and diversion: Jasts were those particular combats where the parties were near each other, and engaged with lance and sword. Add, that the tournament was frequently performed by a number of cavaliers, who fought in a body: The just was a single combat of one man against another.—Though the jasts were usually made in tournaments, after a general encounter of all the cavaliers, yet they were sometimes singly, and independent of any tournament. See TOURNAMENT.
He who appeared for the first time at a just, forfeited his helm or casque, unless he had forfeited before at a tournament.