Semantic Set:Fast, Quick, Rapid, Swift, Slow, andSpeed
Robert M. W. Dixon · Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2018
Of the six items in this set, five are of Anglo-Saxon origin, only rapid being a Romance loan. Fast /faːst/. Old English (OE) had adjective fæst ‘firm, fixed, stiff’ and adverb fæste ‘firmly, vigorously’ (going back to Proto-European * past - ‘solid, firm’). Within Middle English (ME), the adverb – now with the form faste or fast – expanded its meaning to include ‘violently, eagerly’ and then ‘at a considerable speed’. This new meaning, which had gradually developed in the adverb fast , was then transferred to the adjective fast (the two now having the same form). In present-day English ‘at a considerable speed’ is the predominant meaning for both adjective and adverb. The original meaning in OE ‘cannot move or cannot be moved’ (overlapping with firm and firmly ) is now a secondary sense and is discussed at the end of the chapter. (Verb fast ‘abstain from food, etc.’ – and related noun fast – is a homonym, with distinct etymology.) Quick /kwik/. In OE, adjective cwic meant ‘alive’ (emanating from Proto-Indo-European verb *g w eia - ‘live’), this being extended during ME times to ‘alive, lively’ and thence (from the thirteenth century) to the central meaning today ‘taking little time’. Along similar lines, OE verb cwician ‘come to life, bring to life’ developed into modern quicken . And adverb quickly followed suit. Rapid /'rapid/. Adjective rapid was a relatively late loan – entering early Modern English in the seventeenth century – based on French rapide and Latin rapidus ‘hasty, snatching’ (this came from Latin verb rapere ‘seize’, which developed from Proto-Indo-European *rep - ‘snatch’). Noun rapidity came at the same time, also from the two sources. Within a few decades, Germanic suffix -ly was used to create adverb rapidly . Swift /swift/. Adjective swift has basically retained its form and meaning from OE times until today. Derived adverb swiftlice and noun swiftnes are now swiftly and swiftness . Slow /slou/. OE had adjective slāw ‘sluggish, lazy’; plus derived verb slāwian ‘be or become sluggish’ and adverb slāwlīce ‘sluggishly, with delay’. Once again, modern meanings date from ME times, giving present-day adjective slow (which came to be also used as a verb during the sixteenth century) and adverb slowly . Speed /spiːd/. This goes back to the OE noun spēd ‘success, prosperity, wealth, plenty’, and verb spēdan ‘succeed, prosper’ (reflecting the Proto-Indo-European verb * spē - ‘thrive, prosper’).