The Etymology of 'Fastness' 🛖

Just went down a rabbit hole on this word because it is quite specific and very rarely used. The meaning of the word is essentially ‘a fortified or secure place’ ref.

But ‘fastness’ implies ‘being fast’, which in my mind has nothing to do with security or ‘steadfastness’. In fact, it seems almost the opposite (see: ‘fast fashion’, ‘fast living’, ‘running fast’ etc).

Apparently, this modern meaning is actually the oddity here. The word goes as far back as proto-germanic, existing in most germanic languages with this early meaning of ‘secure, firmly, strongly’ etc. Somehow, this has developed to mean ‘quick’ or ‘swift’ in modern English. How?

Well I’m glad you asked. Apparently, the change has been in Old English since the 1200s ref, and was likely a result of Norse influence (see: Danelaw in England). As germanic languages, these norse people would have had the same meaning of ‘secure, firmly, strongly’. The theory is that the meaning came about by these norse people using phrases translating to ‘run hard’, ‘drink hard’ etc. These basically mean the same thing as ‘run fast’, ‘drink fast’ in English.

For some modern connections, consider ‘fast asleep’ as ‘firmly asleep’ and ‘to fast’ as ‘to remain firmly against eating’.

Another interesting connection is that the pirate speak ‘avast’, meaning ‘hold!’ or ‘stop!’ is thought to be a worn down version of the Dutch ‘houd vast’, meaning ‘hold fast’ ref.