speedy

English

Etymology

From Middle English spedy, spedi, from Old English spēdiġ (“having good speed, lucky, prosperous; having means, wealthy, opulent, rich in material wealth; rich in, abounding in, abundant, plenteous, copious; powerful”), from Proto-Germanic *spōdigaz (“successful, hurried”), equivalent to speed +‎ -y. Cognate with Scots spedie (“speedy”), Dutch spoedig (“speedy, swift, rapid, quick”), German sputig, spudig (“industrious, speedy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspiː.di/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːdi

Adjective

speedy (comparative speedier, superlative speediest)

1. Proceeding with or characterized by high speed; rapid.

   Synonyms: swift, fast, quick; see also Thesaurus:speedy

   • 1594, Thomas Nash, “The Terrors of the Night”, in Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books‎^[1], volume I, published 1807, →OCLC, page 270:

     " Without further parley, upon their knees they fell most devoutly, and for helpe on heaven never ceased extensively to intercessionate God, for his speedie recoverie.

   • 1951 November, David R. Webb, “The Drummond 4-4-0 Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 774:

     They turned out to be speedy machines and earned the sobriquet "Greyhounds", giving excellent performances on the Exeter run.

   • 1961 October, ""Voyageur"", “The Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway”, in Trains Illustrated, page 598:

     After some quite speedy constructional work the line was opened to traffic on January 2, 1865.

Derived terms

• speedily
• speediness
• speedy delete
• speedy deletion
• Speedy Gonzales
• speedy (Verb)

 

Translations

characterized by rapid or swift motion

• Bashkir: тиҙ (tiź), шәп (şəp)
• Bulgarian: бърз (bg) (bǎrz), незабавен (bg) (nezabaven)
• Catalan: ràpid (ca) m, veloç (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 快速的 (zh) (kuàisù de), 迅速的 (zh) (xùnsù de)

• Dutch: spoedig (nl)
• Finnish: vauhdikas (fi)
• French: prompt (fr), rapide (fr)
• German: schnell (de)
• Hungarian: gyors (hu), sebes (hu)
• Irish: imeachtach
• Japanese: 高速 (ja) (kōsoku)
• Latin: vēlox (la), celer (la), celox, properus
• Macedonian: брз (brz)
• Portuguese: rápido (pt), pronto (pt)
• Russian: бы́стрый (ru) (býstryj)
• Scottish Gaelic: siùbhlach
• Spanish: rápido (es), pronto (es)
• Thai: เร็ว (th) (reo)
• Vietnamese: sẵn sàng (vi)

Verb

speedy (third-person singular simple present speedies, present participle speedying, simple past and past participle speedied)

1. (transitive) To process in a faster than normal, accelerated way.

   Synonym: speed up

   • 1647, [uncredited], Journals of the House of Lords (House of Lords), volume 10, page 389:

     “ […] the Treaty between the King and the Parliament may be speedied; and that Care may be taken, to prevent the casting of the Two Kingdoms into War and Blood.”

   • 1871, The Mauritius Reports, page 46:

     […] for the purpose of proceeding to the immediate sale of the goods under seizure, with the view of speedying the exercise of their rights on the proceeds of the sale of the goods seized.

2. (transitive, Wikimedia jargon) To apply the speedy rule in an online community (often the deletion rule); to speedy delete.

   Synonym: speedy delete

   The guy is *not* so obviously insignificant that speedying him is appropriate.