Rathe

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɹeɪð/

Definitions

1. Occurring at an early time or stage, it refers to events or instances that happen sooner than expected in a given context
2. Denoting an action or occurrence that takes place ahead of the usual timeframe, it emphasizes precocity or untimeliness
3. Happening or appearing earlier than usual or anticipated

Etymology: Rathe is an old word that has nearly vanished from everyday English, and its most striking feature is how far its meaning has drifted from speed. In Old English, "hraþe" meant "quickly" or "eagerly," and the same root gave rise to the sense "quick" that survives in its ancestors across the Germanic languages. German "gerade," for instance, now means "straight" or "just," yet it grew from the same family of ideas about swift motion. The English word shifted from a sense of haste toward one of being early, so that a rathe flower or a rathe harvest is one that comes up before its season. The word traces back through Middle English "rathe" to a Proto-West Germanic base, and ultimately to a Proto-Indo-European root "kret-" meaning "quick" or "to move quickly." Its cousins in Low German, Dutch, Norwegian and Gothic all keep the sense of quickness or directness, showing how a single notion of swiftness spread across the northern languages.

Synonyms: early, premature

Antonyms: late, delayed