Fast Definition

Origin of Fast

• From Middle English fast, from Old English fæst (“fast, fixed, firm, secure; constant, steadfast; stiff, heavy, dense; obstinate, bound, costive; enclosed, closed, watertight; strong, fortified”), from Proto-Germanic *fastaz, *fastijaz, *fastuz (“fast, firm, secure”), from Proto-Indo-European *pasto- (“fixed, firm, fortified, solid”). Cognate with Scots fest, fast (“fast”), Saterland Frisian fest (“fast”), West Frisian fêst (“fast”), Dutch vast (“fast”), German fest (“fast”), Danish fast (“fast”), Swedish fast (“fast”), Norwegian fast (“fast”), Icelandic fastur (“fast”), Armenian հաստ (hast, “thick”), Sanskrit पस्त्य (pastyá).

  From Wiktionary

• 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”).

  From Wiktionary

• From Middle English fasten, from Old English fæstan (verb), from Proto-Germanic *fastijaną. Cognate with Dutch vasten, German fasten, Old Norse fasta, Gothic (fastan), Russian пост (post). The noun is probably from Old Norse fasta.

  From Wiktionary

• Middle English from Old English fæst firm, fixed past- in Indo-European roots

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

• Middle English fasten from Old English fæstan past- in Indo-European roots

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition