Word: fast Part of Speech: adj Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *fastuz Proto-West Germanic *fast Old English fæst Middle English fast English fast From Middle English fast, fest, from Old English fæst (“firm, secure”), from Proto-West Germanic *fast, from Proto-Germanic *fastuz; see it for cognates and further etymology. The development of “rapid” from an original sense of “secure” apparently happened first in the adverb and then transferred to the adjective; compare hard in expressions like “to run hard”. The original sense of “secure, firm” is now slightly archaic, but retained in the related fasten (“make secure”). Also compare close meaning change from Latin rapiō (“to snatch”) to Latin rapidus (“rapid, quick”), from Irish sciob (“to snatch”) to Irish sciobtha (“quick”). Pronunciation: /fɑːst/, /fæst/ 1. Firmly or securely fixed in place; stable. Labels: dated Example: That rope is dangerously loose. Make it fast! 2. Firm against attack; fortified by nature or art; impregnable; strong. Example: out-lawes […] lurking in woods and fast places 3. Steadfast, with unwavering feeling. (Now mostly in set phrases like fast friend(s).) Example: I still hear you sayin', "Dear one, hold me fast" 4. Moving with great speed, or capable of doing so; swift, rapid; light. Example: I am going to buy a fast car. 5. Moving with great speed, or capable of doing so; swift, rapid; light. Example: Plutonium-240 has a much higher fission cross-section for fast neutrons than for thermal neutrons. 6. Of a place, characterised by business, hustle and bustle, etc. Example: Sydney is a fast city, and the pace is becoming increasingly more frantic. 7. Causing unusual rapidity of play or action. Example: a fast racket, or tennis court Example: a fast track 8. Able to transfer data in a short period of time. Example: But at the microlevel it consists of an unimaginable number of atoms connected by springy chemical bonds, all jiggling around at a rate that even our fastest supercomputer might envy. 9. Deep or sound (of sleep); fast asleep (of people). Example: Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon’t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep. 10. Not running or fading when subjected to detrimental conditions such as wetness or intense light; permanent. Example: All the washing has come out pink. That red tee-shirt was not fast. Example: Mineral pigments were probably the first materials used for dyeing. They were generally not fast to water. 11. Tenacious; retentive. Labels: obsolete Example: Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of their smells. 12. Having an extravagant lifestyle or immoral habits. Labels: dated Example: a fast woman Example: […] we remember once hearing a fast man suggest that they were evidently "nobs who had overdrawn the badger by driving fast cattle, and going it high" — the exact signification of which words we did not understand […] 13. Uncharacteristically mature or promiscuous for one's age. Labels: dated, offensive, vernacular Example: […] if she is of the slightly faster kind that gives smart lunch parties at the Strand Corner House, her diet is sometimes a little stronger; she takes to novels of the orchid house and the tiger's lair, to the artless erotics of Miss Elinor Glyn, Mr Hubert Wales, and Miss Victoria Cross. 14. Ahead of the correct time or schedule. Example: There must be something wrong with the hall clock. It is always fast. 15. More sensitive to light than average.