apace
English
WOTD – 23 February 2016
Etymology
From Middle English apās (“step by step, slowly; quickly, rapidly; at once, promptly”), from Old French à pas (“at a quick pace”).[1]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /əˈpeɪs/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪs
Adverb
apace (not comparable)
- Quickly, rapidly, with speed.
- Construction of the new offices is proceeding apace.
- 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Iuliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, Act III, scene 2, page 65:
- 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.)
- (To one, it is ten years of years.
- 1954, C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy, Collins, 1998, Chapter 1,
- 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.
Synonyms
Translations
References
- “apās, adv.” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 13 January 2018; “apace” (US) / “apace” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.
Further reading
- “apace” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
Anagrams
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.