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Topic: Fast

A listener wrote in with, as he phrased it, a fast question. He and his son had not been surprised to learn that the fast that means "to abstain from food" (as when one fasts for religious purposes) is not related to the fast that means "wild" (as in a fast crowd). But they were surprised to learn that the roots of the adjective fast that developed into the "wild" sense of fast shares the same Old English ancestor as the fast that describes something "firmly loyal," as fast friends and the fast that means "swift," as in fast horses.

So did some long ago word user play fast and loose with language? Not at all. Let's go back to the very earliest days of Old English (when fast was born with the senses "firmly fixed; tightly shut; unchangeable") and when its ancient linguistic kin meant "firm."

Over the centuries, the firmness underpinning fast remained strong, even as the nuances of fast shifted.

Fast once enjoyed the sense "unremitting," as in a fast foe. This sense is now archaic, but a similar-seeming sense, "characterized by swift motion," survived, followed by the logical enough developments meaning "marked by or given to living that is unusually active; wild;" or "promiscuous."

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.