faster

See also: FASTER and fäster

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfæstɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑːstə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æstə(ɹ), -ɑːstə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: fast‧er

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *fastuz

Proto-West Germanic *fast

Old English fæst

Middle English fast

English fast

English -er

English faster

From fast (“quick; quickly”) + -er.

Adjective

faster

1. comparative form of fast: more fast
   • 1953 September, “Restoring British Permanent Way to Prewar Standards”, in Railway Magazine, page 587:

     The renewal of track by cranes and special tracklaying machines which lift out entire 60 ft. lengths of old track and lay in pre-assembled 60 ft. lengths of new, allows the process of renewal to proceed at a considerably faster rate than possible by older methods.

   • 2025 July 9, Philip Haigh, “When the WCML closes, can the S&C take the strain?”, in RAIL, number 1039, page 22:

     Other paths can be occupied by oil trains from Grain, timber trains for Chirk, cement trains for Clitheroe, as well as engineering trains running this way to avoid the West Coast Main Line and other 60mph services squeezed off the WCML to make way for faster passenger and freight trains.

Adverb

faster

1. comparative form of fast: more fast

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *fastuz

Proto-West Germanic *fast

Old English fæst

Middle English fast

English fast

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzijos

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English faster

From fast (“refrain from eating”) + -er.

Noun

faster (plural fasters)

1. One who fasts, or voluntarily refrains from eating.

Translations

one who fasts

• Basque: baraugile
• Bengali: রোজাদার (bn) (rozadar)
• Breton: yuner
• Catalan: dejunador m, dejunadora f
• French: jeûneur (fr) m, jeûneuse (fr) f
• Italian: digiunatore m, digiunatrice f
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: rojîgir (ku) m or f, birojî (ku) m or f

• Latin: iēiūnātor m, iēiūnātrīx f
• Portuguese: jejuador m, jejuadora f
• Romanian: ajunător m, ajunătoare f, postitor m, postitoare f
• Spanish: ayunador (es) m, ayunadora (es) f
• Swahili: mfunga
• Turkish: perhizkâr (tr)
• Welsh: ymprydiwr

Anagrams

• afters, farest, freats, strafe

Danish

Etymology

Equivalent to far (“father”) +‎ søster (“sister”), from Old Norse fǫðursystir.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fastər/, [ˈfasd̥ɐ]

Noun

faster c (singular definite fasteren, plural indefinite fastre)

1. paternal aunt (one's father's sister)

Declension

Declension of faster

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	faster	fasteren	fastre	fastrene
genitive	fasters	fasterens	fastres	fastrenes

Hypernyms

• tante

References

• “faster” in Den Danske Ordbog

Elfdalian

Etymology

From Old Norse fǫðursystir. Cognate with Swedish faster.

Noun

faster f

1. paternal aunt

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Old Norse fǫðursystir f (“father's sister”).

Noun

faster f or m (definite singular fasteren or fastra, indefinite plural fastrer or fastre, definite plural fastrene)

1. a paternal aunt

Etymology 2

Noun

faster c

1. indefinite plural of faste

Verb

faster

1. present of faste

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Old Norse fǫðursystir f (“father's sister”), akin to Norwegian Nynorsk farsyster.

Alternative forms

• farsyster, farsøster (long forms)

Noun

faster f (definite singular fastra, indefinite plural fastrer, definite plural fastrene)

1. a paternal aunt

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

faster f

1. indefinite plural of faste
2. (non-standard since 2012) indefinite plural of fasta

References

• “faster” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse fastr, from Proto-Germanic *fastuz.

Adjective

faster

1. fast, firm

Declension

Declension of faster (strong)

singular	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	faster	fast	fast
accusative	fastan	fasta	fast
dative	fastum fastom	fastri fastre	fastu fasto
genitive	fasts	fastrar	fasts
plural	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	fastir faster	fastar	fast
accusative	fasta	fastar	fast
dative	fastum fastom	fastum fastom	fastum fastom
genitive	fastra fasta	fastra fasta	fastra fasta

Declension of faster (weak)

singular	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	fasti faste	fasta	fasta
accusative	fasta	fastu fasto	fasta
dative	fasta	fastu fasto	fasta
genitive	fasta	fastu fasto	fasta
plural	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	fastu fasto	fastu fasto	fastu fasto
accusative	fastu fasto	fastu fasto	fastu fasto
dative	fastu fasto	fastu fasto	fastu fasto
genitive	fastu fasto	fastu fasto	fastu fasto

Descendants

• Swedish: fast

Swedish

Swedish kinship terms

Etymology

From Old Swedish faþur systir, faþersyster, from Old Norse fǫðursystir.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

faster c

1. paternal aunt

Declension

Declension of faster

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	faster	fasters
	definite	fastern	fasterns
plural	indefinite	fastrar	fastrars
	definite	fastrarna	fastrarnas

See also

• moster

References

• “faster”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “faster”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “faster”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

Anagrams

• festar, safter