fastness

English

WOTD – 1 November 2021

Etymology

From Middle English fastnes, fastnesse (“immovableness, stability; firmness, solidness; secure attachment; constancy; obstinacy; something giving firmness or strength; of sleep: soundness; of a wound: healing; assurance, confirmation”) [and other forms],^[1] from Old English fæstnes (“fastness, firmness, stability; resolution; tenacity; vigour; firmament; fortification”) [and other forms], from fæst (“firm, stable; constant”) (from Proto-Germanic *fastuz (“firm, fixed; secure”); see further at that entry) + -nes (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a quality or state). The English word may be analysed as fast +‎ -ness.^[2]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑːs(t)nəs/, /ˈfæs(t)-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfæs(t)nəs/
• (trap–bath split) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑːs(t)nəs/
• Rhymes: (Received Pronunciation; trap–bath split) -ɑːstnəs, (General American) -æstnəs
• Hyphenation: fast‧ness

Noun

fastness (countable and uncountable, plural fastnesses)

1. (uncountable) The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
   1. The quality or state of being strongly attached; firmness, secureness, tenacity.
      • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Lyers”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 16:

        [T]he thing, as it is, having firſt taken vp her ſtand in the memory, and there by the way of knowledge and witting, imprinted it-ſelfe, it were hard it ſhould not repreſent it ſelfe to the imagination, diſplacing and ſupplanting falſehood, which therein can have no ſuch footing, or ſetled faſtneſſe: […]

      • 1699 October 25 (Gregorian calendar); first published 1715, Robert South, “A Discourse Preached at Christ-Church, Oxon, before the University, October 15. 1699.”, in Twelve Sermons Preached at Several Times, and upon Several Occasions, volume IV, London: […] G. James, for Jonah Bowyer […], →OCLC, page 523:

        [T]his is the ſure, infallible Teſt of Love, that the Meaſure of its Strength is to be taken by the Faſtneſs of its Hold.

      1. (specifically) The ability of a dye to withstand fading.
   2. The quality or state of moving quickly; quickness, rapidity, swiftness.
      • 1959 September 13, Walt Kelly, Pogo, Sunday, comic strip, →ISBN, page 251:

        [Frog:] Why are all of us fleein'? What dire peril threatens our sylvan fastness?
        [Bug:] Just run! Your fastness shouldn't be too slow.

   3. The quality or state of having an extravagant lifestyle or immoral habits.
   4. (archaic) Of a fortress or other place: the quality or state of being secure from access or attack; safety, security.
      • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 18, page 316:

        But now his cruelty ſo ſore ſhe drad, / That to thoſe fennes for faſtneſſe ſhe did fly, / And there her ſelfe did hyde from his hard tyranny.

      • 1697, Virgil, “The Ninth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 492, lines 940–941:

        The Foes had left the faſtneſs of their Place, / Prevail'd in Fight, and had his Men in Chace.

   5. (obsolete) The quality or state of being firm, hard, or solid; firmness, hardness, solidity.
      • a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, “[The Second Booke Teachyng the Ready Way to the Latin Tong]”, in Margaret Ascham, editor, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […] John Daye, […], published 1570, →OCLC, folio 44, verso:

        Which was brought to paſſe I beleue, […] by a good way of Epitome, in binding him ſelfe to tranſlate meros Atticos Oratores, and ſo to bring his ſtyle, from all lowſe groſneſſe, to ſoch firme faſtnes in latin, as is in Demoſthenes in Greeke.

2. (countable) Something that is fast, or that causes someone or something to be fast (in various senses).
   1. (also figuratively) A fortified or secure place; a fortress, a stronghold.
      • 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Henry the Third, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 71, page 528, column 1:

        [I]f the VVelſh compelled by famine ventred out of their ſtrengthes or faſtneſſes, in or about Snovvdon, the Garriſon Souldiers of Gannocke vvere ready to intercept and kill them; […]

      • 1803, John Browne Cutting, “A Succinct History of Jamaica”, in R[obert] C[harles] Dallas, The History of the Maroons, from Their Origin to the Establishment of Their Chief Tribe at Sierra Leone: […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Strahan, […], for T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O. Rees, →OCLC, page xxxviii:

        [T]he ſlaves that yet remained in the faſtneſſes of Jamaica, attached to the Spaniſh, and hoſtile to the Engliſh ſettlers, continued to be troubleſome, and at times formidable.

      • 1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “Child-raising on Mars”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1917 October, →OCLC, page 69:

        The incubators are built in remote fastnesses, where there is little or no likelihood of their being discovered by other tribes.

      • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter IV, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, page 26:

        When she came to know writers it was like adventuring upon a stage which till then she had known only from the other side of the footlights. She saw them dramatically, and really seemed herself to live a larger life because she entertained them and visited them in their fastnesses.

      • 1920, F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Cut-Glass Bowl”, in Scribner's Magazine‎:

        […] though cut glass was nothing new in the nineties, it was then especially busy reflecting the dazzling light of fashion from the Back Bay to the fastnesses of the Middle West.

      • 1925 April, Virginia Woolf, “On Not Knowing Greek”, in The Common Reader, 2nd edition, London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […], published November 1925, →OCLC:

        When we read Chaucer, we are floated up to him insensibly on the current of our ancestors' lives, […] But the Greeks remain in a fastness of their own.

      • 1954 October 11, “Assault on the Summit: The Conquerors' Account”, in Life‎, volume 37, number 15, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 33:

        On the morning of July 31, the mountain rose spangled in the summer sun 2,300 feet above Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli. Strapping on three oxygen tanks, the two men faced toward K2's last fastness.

      • 1959, David P. Morgan, editor, Steam’s Finest Hour, Milwaukee, Wis.: Kalmbach Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 60:

        Their mission in life was to tote bituminous coal out of the mountain fastness of West Virginia and move it west to the gateways of Deepwater, Columbus and Toledo and east to tidewater at Hampton Roads.

      • 2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 116:

        "I have many servants in my mountain fastness, and all the riches I could dream of."

   2. (obsolete except British, regional) Something used to fasten or tie; a fastener or fastening.

Derived terms

• acid-fastness
• colorfastness
• colour fastness, colourfastness

Translations

quality or state of being fast (in various senses)

quality or state of being strongly attached — see firmness,‎ tenacity

ability of a dye to withstand fading

Italian: solidità (it) f

quality or state of moving quickly — see quickness,‎ rapidity

quality or state of having an extravagant lifestyle or immoral habits

of a fortress or other place: the quality or state of being secure from access or attack — see also security

something that is fast, or that causes someone or something to be fast (in various senses)

fortified or secure place — see also fortress,‎ stronghold

Bulgarian: укрепление (bg) n (ukreplenie) German: Feste (de) f, Festung (de) f Irish: Old Irish: daingen n Manx: doon m Old English: fæstnes f Russian: цитаде́ль (ru) f (citadélʹ), кре́пость (ru) f (krépostʹ), опло́т (ru) m (oplót), тверды́ня (ru) f (tverdýnja) Sanskrit: कलत्र (sa) n (kalatra) Scottish Gaelic: daingneach f

References

1. “fastnes(se, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
2. Compare “fastness, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2021; “fastness, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.