Skeat

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. To move with speed or hurry along at a quick pace
2. To go swiftly or rush from one place to another
3. To travel or proceed at a rapid or hasty rate

Etymology: Skeat is a surname before it is anything else, and the surname was a nickname. Middle English "skete" meant "swift" or "quick," and it came into English from Old Norse "skjótt," meaning "quickly." Because the word named a fast person, it was presumably given to a messenger or runner, the sort of man whose job was to get somewhere in a hurry. A nickname like that could harden into a family name, and that is how the word survives today, mostly as a name rather than a common noun. The Old Norse origin is the notable part. Viking-age speakers of Norse settled large parts of northern and eastern England, and their vocabulary blended into the local dialects, so a Scandinavian adjective for speed could end up attached to an English man's name. The word itself is now archaic as an adjective, and the surname is what carries it forward.