Hastily

How to spell hastily

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce hastily

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hastily mean?

1. adverbIn a hurried way, often without enough care or thought.

Hastily in a sentence

• He packed his bag hastily and forgot his passport.

• The report was written hastily and contained several errors.

Where does hastily come from?

Language of origin: French

This adverb traces back to the noun 'haste', which English took from Old French 'haste' in the 1200s, meaning speed or urgency. The Old French word itself came from a Germanic source related to violence or vehemence, the idea being to act with forceful quickness. English first formed the adjective 'hasty', meaning 'done quickly', and then added the adverb ending '-ly' to describe an action carried out in a hurry. A useful spelling reminder lives in the formation: 'hasty' ends in '-y', and when '-ly' is attached the 'y' softens to an 'i', giving 'hastily' rather than 'hastyly'. The same Germanic root sense of urgency survives in the everyday warnings against acting 'in haste'.

How the word is built

• hast- (from haste: speed, urgency)
• -i- (from adjective hasty, y becomes i)
• -ly (adverb suffix)