• fast •
Pronunciation: fæst • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective, adverb; verb
Meaning: 1. Quick(ly), swift(ly). 2. (Verb) To abstain from food, usually for religious or principles reasons. 3. Tight(ly), firm(ly), rigid(ly), complete(ly).
Notes: If quicken means "to do quickly" and hasten, "to do hastily", why doesn't fasten mean "to do fast"? When we lie motionlessly asleep, why do we say we're "fast asleep"? This word is its own antonym, a contranym. This adjective is also its own adverb. Its verb, fasten, is limited to its original meaning, number 3 above. Its comparisons are faster and fastest.
In Play: The most common sense of this word is heard in expressions like this: "We do have people whose mouths run faster than their brains." The original, now antonymic, sense arises in claims like this: "Despite all the noise from his opponents, Mortimer Killjoy held fast to his opinion."
Word History: Today's Good Word comes from Proto-Germanic fastuz "tight, firmly fixed, steadfast", source also of German fest "firm, fixed", Dutch vast "fixed, solid", Icelandic fastur "stuck, fixed", Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish fast "firm, fixed, solid". Proto-Germanic fastuz came from PIE past- "solid, fixed", which also produced Sanskrit pastya "dwelling place: stall, stable, homestead", and Armenian hast "thick, dense". The Proto-Germanic verbal use of this word meant "hold firmly", which easily shifted to "abstain from food". The shift from "tightly, firmly, completely" to "swiftly" probably came via its Old English use meaning "constantly, without cessation or interruption", i.e. "happening tightly".
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