apace

English edit

WOTD – 23 February 2016

Etymology edit

From Middle English apās (“step by step, slowly; quickly, rapidly; at once, promptly”), from Old French à pas (“at a quick pace”).^[1]

Pronunciation edit

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /əˈpeɪs/
Audio (AU) (file)
Rhymes: -eɪs

Adverb edit

apace (not comparable)

Quickly, rapidly, with speed.
Construction of the new offices is proceeding apace.
- c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 65:
  Gallop apace, you fiery footed ſteedes, / Towards Phœbus lodging, ſuch a Wagoner / As Phaeton would whip you to the weſt, / And bring in Cloudie night immediately.
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 145:
  Ow faire Hippolita, our nuptiall houre / Drawes on apace: foure happy daies bring in / Another Moon […]
- 1850, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Blessed Damozel, The Germ; reprinted in Poems [Collection of British and American Authors; 1380], copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1873, OCLC 933409239, page 2, lines 19–24:
  (To one, it is ten years of years.
  ... Yet now, and in this place,
  
  Surely she leaned o'er me—her hair
  Fell all about my face. ...
  
  Nothing: the autumn fall of leaves.
  The whole year sets apace.)
- 1954, C. S. Lewis, chapter 1, in The Horse and His Boy, Collins, published 1998:
  Twilight was coming on apace and a star or two was already out, but the remains of the sunset could still be seen in the west.
- 2017 August 20, “The Observer view on the attacks in Spain”, in The Observer‎^[1]:
  Despite efforts to prevent it, officials say, the radicalisation of young Muslims living in Europe proceeds apace.

Synonyms edit

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

Quickly, rapidly, with speed

Azerbaijani: tezbazar
Chinese:
Cantonese: 飛快／飞快 (fei¹ faai³), 急速 (gap¹ cuk¹)
Finnish: ripeästi (fi), rivakasti (fi), rapsakasti
French: rapidement (fr), to proceed apace: aller bon train (fr)
German: rasch (de)
Portuguese: rapidamente (pt), ligeiro (pt)
Russian: быстро (ru) (bystro), спе́шно (ru) (spéšno), ско́ро (ru) (skóro)

References edit

^ “apās, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 13 January 2018; “apace”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams edit

capea

[1] “apās, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 13 January 2018; “apace”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

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