From the M-W Editors
festinate was our Word of the Day on 09/27/2012. Hear the podcast!
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First Known Use of festinate
1596
Did You Know?
Festinate is one among many in the category of words whose first recorded use is in the works of Shakespeare ("Advise the Duke where you are going, to a most festinate preparation." - King Lear, III.vii.10). Perhaps the Bard knew about "festinatus," the Latin predecessor of "festinate," or was familiar with the Latin proverb festina lente-"make haste slowly." Shakespeare also gets credit for the adverb "festinately" (first seen in Love’s Labour’s Lost, III.i.6: "Bring him festinately hither."), but another writer beat him to the verb "festinate" (pronounced \FESS-tuh-nayt), meaning "to hasten."
Origin and Etymology of festinate
Latin festinatus, past participle of festinare to hasten; perhaps akin to Middle Irish bras forceful, Welsh brys haste
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