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

• 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, 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^[1]:

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

Synonyms

• expeditiously
• swiftly

Translations

Quickly, rapidly, with speed

• Finnish: ripeästi (fi), rivakasti (fi), rapsakasti
• French: rapidement (fr), to proceed apace: aller bon train (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: быстро (ru) (bystro), спе́шно (ru) (spéšno), ско́ро (ru) (skóro)

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “apace”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• capea