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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /əˈpeɪs/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪs

Adverb

apace (not comparable)

1. Quickly, rapidly, with speed.

   Construction of the new offices is proceeding apace.

   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], 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.

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 145:

     Ow faire Hippolita, our nuptiall houre / Drawes on apace: foure happy daies bring in / Another Moon […]

   • 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.)

   • 1943, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, “The Abolition of Man”, in The Abolition of Man […], New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published 1947, →OCLC, page 46:

     The process which, if not checked, will abolish Man, goes on apace among Communists and Democrats no less than among Fascists. […] Once we killed bad men: now we liquidate unsocial elements.

   • 1954, C. S. Lewis, chapter 1, in The Horse and His Boy, Collins, published 1998:

     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^[1]:

     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 / 飞快 (fei¹ faai³), 急速 (gap¹ cuk¹)

• Finnish: rapsakasti, ripeästi (fi), rivakasti (fi)
• French: rapidement (fr), aller bon train (fr) (literally “to proceed apace”)
• German: rasch (de)
• Polish: szybko (pl)
• Portuguese: ligeiro (pt), rapidamente (pt)
• Russian: быстро (ru) (bystro), ско́ро (ru) (skóro), спе́шно (ru) (spéšno)

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025), “apace”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• capea