expeditious
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English expedycius (“useful, fitting”), from Latin expedītus (“disengaged, ready, convenient, prompt; unfettered, unencumbered”), past participle of expediō.[1]
Pronunciation
editAdjective
editexpeditious (comparative more expeditious, superlative most expeditious)
- Fast, prompt, speedy. [from 1590s][1]
- Near-synonym: expedited
- 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Emma: […], volume III, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 15:
- Our coachman and horses are so extremely expeditious!—I believe we drive faster than anybody.
- (of a process or thing) Completed or done with efficiency and speed; facilitating speed.
- Near-synonym: expedited
- 1816, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in The Antiquary. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 153:
- As they thus pressed forward, longing doubtless to exchange the easy curving line, which the sinuosities of the bay compelled them to adopt, for a straiter and more expeditious path, though less conformable to the line of beauty, Sir Arthur observed a human figure on the beach advancing to meet them.
- 1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “I return to Ireland, and exhibit my splendour and generosity in that kingdom”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1856, →OCLC, page 199:
- Now, there was a sort of rough-and-ready law in Ireland in those days which was of great convenience to persons desirous of expeditious justice […].
Related terms
edit- expedient (not to be confused in modern usage)
- expedite
- expedition
- expeditionary
- expeditiously (adverb)
Translations
editFast, prompt, speedy
References
edit- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “expeditious (adj.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.