speedy

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 (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːdi

Adjective

speedy (comparative speedier, superlative speediest)

1. Rapid; swift.
   • 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.

Synonyms

• fast, swift, quick, rapid
• See also Thesaurus:speedy

Derived terms

• speedily
• speediness
• speedy delete
• speedy deletion
• Speedy Gonzales

 

Translations

characterized by rapid or swift motion

Bashkir: тиҙ (tið), шәп (şäp) 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.
   • 1647, {uncredited}, Journals of the 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, Wiktionary and WMF jargon) To apply the speedy rule in an online community (often the deletion rule); to speedy delete.

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

Synonyms

• speed up
• speedy delete