fast

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Moving or able to move quickly.

   He drives a very fast car.

2. 2
   adv

   Quickly; at high speed.

   How fast can they get here?

3. 3
   adv

   Firmly or tightly in place.

   She held fast to the rope as the boat rocked.

4. 4
   adj

   Showing a time that is ahead of the correct time.

   My watch is five minutes fast.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Fast represents two separate Old English words: one associated with firmness and one meaning abstinence from food. The speed-related word originally meant “firmly fixed,” a sense preserved in color-fast, make fast, and fasten; it later meant “reliable” or “enduring,” and probably came to describe something, such as a horse, that could keep going and hence move quickly. The other fast independently retained the sense “abstain from food.”

From Middle English fasten, from Old English fæstan (“to fast”), from Proto-West Germanic *fastēn, from Proto-Germanic *fastāną (“to fast”), from the same root as Proto-Germanic *fastijaną (“to fasten”), derived from *fastuz, and thereby related to Etymology 1. The religious sense is presumably introduced in the Gothic church, from Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fastan, “hold fast (viz. to the rule of abstinence)”). This semantic development is unique to Gothic, the term glosses Greek νηστεύω (nēsteúō), Latin ieiuno which do not have similar connotations of "holding fast". The feminine noun Old High German fa…

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External links

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