No Time to Waste

Last week I used the word fugacious, and some would have used the word celerity or the word alacrity. All three have to do with speed, but what do they each mean and what is the good word for various uses?

I was doing an appearance on Sacramento & Company, a local television show that has a “word of the day” and the word was alacrity. The contest was to use the word correctly during the program and win a prize package. (I won an umbrella.)

Alacrity is a noun that means eager willingness or readiness, often manifested by quick, lively action. It comes originally from Latin, from the word alacritas or alacritatem, which means liveliness. It was adopted into Old French where it was alacrite, then into Middle English, where we got it in about 1500. It refers to quick action quickly taken.

As mentioned last week, anything that is fugacious is something that is short-lived, fleeting, or appears and disappears quickly. Botanically, it refers to a bloom that falls off soon after it blooms. It’s pronounced like fugue, rather than like fugitive (the word with which it shares a connection). Enough on this word; I’ll be fugacious about fugacious.

Celerity is a noun that comes to us from Middle French (célérité) which got it from Latin (celeritas). Celer in Latin means swift. And celerity means swiftness in acting or moving. It doesn’t have the connotation of quick reaction that alacrity does, and can last longer than fugacity. It’s possible that it has an older history, since there are several primitive Indo-European roots (PIEs, they’re called) that are similar, to cel or kel. Sanskrit has the word carati that means “goes”, Greek has keles that means “fast horse or ship”, Lithuanian has the word sulys that means “a gallop” and Old High German has the word scelo that means “stallion”. So you can see how many languages have a similar word that has a similar meaning; but it is one thing to see a connection and another thing to be able to track the connection. It’s only to Latin through French that proof exists of a connection in word development. While célérité was used in France in the 14th century, it wasn’t until the late 15th century that it was brought into English. (And it has a different etymology from celery, which will have to wait for another day and blog.)

So fugacious refers to something that appears and disappears quickly. Alacrity refers to a quick activity engaged upon with no delay. Celerity is much more a synonym for speed, but would be used for speed when talking about action rather than movement. (Although it can be used for movement, too.) I’ve most often heard it used for human activity of the will rather than pure speed (like a car or a stallion). Use it in referring to people and the speed with which they should or have accomplished something.