[f. SWIFT a. + -NESS.]
1. The quality of being swift; rapidity.
a. of something moving, or of movement or physical action; in early use sometimes nearly = ‘rapid movement.’
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 3. Hwa unlæredra ne wundrað þæs roderes færeldes & his swiftnesse?
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. (Th.), xxxii. 15 [xxxiii. 17]. Þi byð dysiʓ, se þe ʓetruwað on his horses swiftnesse.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23381 (Cott.). In suiftenes þou sal be sa suift, Þat als suith som þou mai lift Þine eie up þe lift to se, Als suith þar þan sal þou be.
1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 7933. Þe secunde blys after es swyftnes, Þat ilk body salle have þat ryghtwise es.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, V. x. For the swyftnesse of the water he must nedes passe vnder the whele of the mylle.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 12. To cary the heauens of the Planetes, by his swiftnes about th’ earth with him.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 20. The secund kynde of hunting dog is … a beist of a meruellous audacitie and suiftnes.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., I. i. 142. We may outrunne By violent swiftnesse that which we run at; And lose by ouer-running.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 2 June 1662. The rich gondola … was not comparable for swiftnesse to our common wherries.
1781. Cowper, Anti-Thelyphth., 194. The barb sprang forward, and his lord, whose force Was equal to the swiftness of his horse, Rushed with a whirlwind’s fury on the foe.
1811. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), I. v. 120. The creature [sc. a snake] got away with incredible swiftness.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 560. The swiftness of Saturn’s motion on his axis produces an oblate figure.
1841. Borrow, Zincali, I. iv. II. 301. With the swiftness of lightning.
b. of something figured as moving or as movement (e.g., thought, time, etc.).
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, ciii. 4 [civ. 3]. Þou passis all swyftnes of our thouȝtis.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 12. Sothe stories ben … swolowet into swym by swiftenes of yeres.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. To the King § 2. I have been … possessed with an extreme woonder at … the swiftnesse of your Apprehension.
1662. Dryden, To Ld. Chancellor, 109. Such is the mighty Swiftness of your Mind That, like the Earth’s, it leaves our Sense behind.
1891. Meredith, One of our Conq., x. If you would like a further definition of Genius, think of it as a form of swiftness.
2. The fact of happening, or acting, without delay; promptitude; † haste, rashness.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 1017. My couatyng is elder Þe sadnes of slike men, þan swyftnes of childir.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Esdras viii. 18. I haue herde the swiftnes of the iudge, which is to come.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 306. Let … all things [be] thought vpon, That may with reasonable swiftnesse adde More Feathers to our Wings. Ibid. (1607), Cor., III. i. 313. This Tiger-footed-rage, when it shall find The harme of vnskan’d swiftnesse, will (too late) Tye Leaden pounds too ’s heeles.
1706. Prior, Ode to Queen, xx. He wept the Swiftness of the Champion’s Fall.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., IV. 379. With earthquake shock and swiftness making shiver Thought’s stagnant chaos.
