One striking example is the adverbs which are used to correspond to the adjectives. Given fast’s origin and development as compared to slow, it is perhaps not surprising that the two words exhibit different patterns of behaviour.
The same semantic development is found slightly earlier in the adverb fastly. This sense probably arose as a specific use of sense 5c of the adverb where it is used as an intensifier with the meaning ‘vigorously, hard thoroughly, greatly’ examples include ‘Wepe fast and be sory’ (a1450) and ‘Fast sheo knokyd, till at the last the ussher opynd the dure’ (a1475). Whereas the ‘firm’ sense of fast is found in Old English, the sense to do with speed emerged in the Middle English period, and originally in the adverb rather than the adjective. It seems somewhat counterintuitive that a word meaning ‘firmly fixed’ should have developed the sense ‘quick, rapid’. Although the sense of fast referring to speed is now much more common, we can still see this first strand of meaning in words and phrases such as fast asleep, fast friends, fast and loose, steadfast, and the verb fasten. By contrast fast (the adjective and the adverb) in its earliest use refers to firmness and fixity, before developing a strand of meaning relating to speediness. Senses referring to speed or rate of progress emerge in the Middle English period.
The earliest senses of the adjective slow refer to negative qualities such as sluggishness (mental and physical) and lack of liveliness. Although fast and slow are antonyms the entries, and those for derived words, do not exactly mirror each other, instead showing quite different semantic development and coverage of senses. Published this quarter are the revised entries for fastand slow. Speed read: the revision of fast and slow
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