different between quick vs fleeting

English

Alternative forms

• kwik (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English quik, quic, from Old English cwic (“alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwik(k)w, from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *g?ih?wós (“alive”), from *g?eyh?- (“to live”), *g?eyh?w- (“to live”).

Cognate with Dutch kwik, kwiek, German keck, Swedish kvick; and (from Indo-European) with Ancient Greek ???? (bíos, “life”), Latin vivus, Lithuanian gývas (“alive”), Latvian dz?vs (“alive”), Russian ?????? (živój), Welsh byw (“alive”), Irish beo (“alive”), biathaigh (“feed”), Northern Kurdish jîn (“to live”), jiyan (“life”), giyan (“soul”), can (“soul”), Sanskrit ??? (j?va, “living”), Albanian nxit (“to urge, stimulate”). Doublet of jiva.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kw?k/, [k?w??k]
• Rhymes: -?k

Adjective

quick (comparative quicker, superlative quickest)

1. Moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast.

2. Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly.

3. Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent.

4. Mentally agile, alert, perceptive.

5. Of temper: easily aroused to anger; quick-tempered.
   • 1549, Hugh Latimer, The Sixth Sermon Preached Before King Edward, April 6 1549

     The bishop was somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much offended.

6. (archaic) Alive, living.
   • 1633, George Herbert, The Temple

     Man is no star, but a quick coal / Of mortal fire.

   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, X

     The inmost oratory of my soul,

     Wherein thou ever dwellest quick or dead,

     Is black with grief eternal for thy sake.

7. (now rare, archaic) Pregnant, especially at the stage where the foetus's movements can be felt; figuratively, alive with some emotion or feeling.
   • Section 316, Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Ed.) (Singapore)

     Whoever does any act under such circumstances that if he thereby caused death he would be guilty of culpable homicide, and does by such act cause the death of a quick unborn child, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine.

   • 2012, Jerry White, London in the Eighteenth Century, Bodley Head 2017, p. 385:

     When sentenced she sought to avoid hanging by declaring herself with child – ironically, given her favourite deception – but a ‘jury of Matrons’ found her not quick.

8. Of water: flowing.
9. Burning, flammable, fiery.
10. Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen.
11. (mining, of a vein of ore) productive; not "dead" or barren

Synonyms

• (moving with speed): fast, speedy, rapid, swift; see also Thesaurus:speedy
• (occurring in a short time): brief, momentary, short-lived; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral
• (fast-thinking): bright, droll, keen; see also Thesaurus:witty or Thesaurus:intelligent
• (easily aroused to anger): hotheaded, rattish, short-tempered, snippish, snippy
• (alive, living): extant, live, vital; see also Thesaurus:alive
• (pregnant): expecting, gravid, with child; see also Thesaurus:pregnant
• (flowing): fluent, fluminous; see also Thesaurus:flowing

Antonyms

• (moving with speed): slow
• (alive): dead

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adverb

quick (comparative quicker, superlative quickest)

1. Quickly, in a quick manner.

   • If we consider how very quick the actions of the mind are performed.

Derived terms

• right quick

Translations

Noun

quick (plural quicks)

1. Raw or sensitive flesh, especially that underneath finger and toe nails.
2. Plants used in making a quickset hedge
   • 1641, John Evelyn, diary entry September 1641

     The works […] are curiously hedged with quick.

3. The life; the mortal point; a vital part; a part susceptible to serious injury or keen feeling.
   • 1550, Hugh Latimer, Sermon Preached at Stamford, 9 October 1550

     This test nippeth, […] this toucheth the quick.

   • How feebly and unlike themselves they reason when they come to the quick of the difference!

4. Quitchgrass.
5. (cricket) A fast bowler.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

quick (third-person singular simple present quicks, present participle quicking, simple past and past participle quicked)

1. (transitive) To amalgamate surfaces prior to gilding or silvering by dipping them into a solution of mercury in nitric acid.
2. (transitive, archaic, poetic) To quicken.
   • 1917', Thomas Hardy, At the Word 'Farewell

     I rose as if quicked by a spur I was bound to obey.

References

• quick in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• quick in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• quick at OneLook Dictionary Search

French

Etymology

From English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwik/
• Rhymes: -ik

Noun

quick m (plural quicks)

1. quick waltz

See also

• slow

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German quick, from Old Saxon quik, from Proto-West Germanic *kwik(k)w, from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz; also a Central Franconian form. Doublet of keck, which see for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kv?k/, [k??k]

Adjective

quick (comparative quicker, superlative am quicksten)

1. (rather rare, dated) lively

Usage notes

• Much more common than the simplex is the pleonastic compound quicklebendig.

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

• “quick” in Duden online
• “quick” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.

English

Etymology

From Middle English fleten (“to float”), from Old English fl?otan (“to float”), from Proto-Germanic *fleutan?, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fli?t??/

Adjective

fleeting (comparative more fleeting, superlative most fleeting)

1. Passing quickly; of short duration.
   • 1931, Martha Kinross, "The Screen — From This Side", The Fortnightly, Volume 130, page 511:

     Architecture, sculpture, painting are static arts. Even in literature "our flying minds," as George Meredith says, cannot contain protracted description. It is so; for from sequences of words they must assemble all the details in one simultaneous impression. But moments of fleeting beauty too transient to be caught by any means less swift than light itself are registered on the screen.

   • 2003, Gabrielle Walker, Snowball Earth: The Story of a Maverick Scientist and His Theory of the Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It, Three Rivers Press (2003), ?ISBN, pages 34-35:

     During the fleeting summer months of his field season, when the outer vestiges of winter melted briefly, there were ponds and pools and lakes of water everywhere.

   • 2008, Barbara L. Bellman & Susan Goldstein, Flirting After Fifty: Lessons for Grown-Up Women on How to Find Love Again, iUniverse (2008), ?ISBN, page 12:

     For starters, we see examples all the time of some middle-aged men trying to hang onto their own fleeting youth by sporting younger women on their arms.

   • 2010, Leslie Ludy, The Lost Art of True Beauty: The Set-Apart Girl's Guide to Feminine Grace, Harvest House Publishers (2010), ?ISBN, page 5:

     And I am inspired afresh to pursue the stunning beauty of Christ rather than the fleeting beauty of this world.

Synonyms

• ephemeral
• See also Thesaurus:ephemeral.

Translations

Usage notes

Often used with nouns indicating mental, perceptual, or emotional states, such as: "a fleeting thought", "a fleeting glimpse" "a fleeting impression", "a fleeting hope", or to indicate that the shortness of duration might be regretted : "fleeting beauty", "fleeting youth".

Verb

fleeting

1. present participle of fleet