Fast

Origin:

Common Germanic: OE fæst corresponds to Old Frisian fest

cognate with Gothic fastan (to keep, guard, observe)

Forms:

OE-ME - fæst

ME - fest, faste

ModE - fast

Meaning:

- 9th century: firmly fixed, attached to

- 16th century: rapid, quick (from adverb)

- verb - "abstain from food," the verb in the sense "to make fast" continued in ME, but was superseded by fasten

- semantic shift - inversion of the meaning (from the stable meaning "firm" to the dynamic meaning "rapid")

References