apace

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)

1. 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:

     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.

   • 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, 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.

   • 2017 August 20, “The Observer view on the attacks in Spain”, in The Observer‎:

     Despite efforts to prevent it, officials say, the radicalisation of young Muslims living in Europe proceeds apace.

Synonyms

• expeditiously
• swiftly

Derived terms

• ill news spreads apace
• mort wap-apace

 

Translations

Quickly, rapidly, with speed

Azerbaijani: tezbazar Chinese: Cantonese: 飛快 (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

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.

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “apace”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• capea