Every moning when I perform my march matutinale, and come to places where the sidewalk
corner curb has been removed and replaced with a gentle slope, I have to take couple rapid
short steps because of gravity assist. I have to festinate.
festinate
vt., vi.
< L festinatus, pp. of festinare, to hurry < IE base *bheres, quick > MIr bras, swift6 [Rare] to hurry; speed
adj.
I learned the word when I was perhaps ten years old. My father and I were looking out
the front window, when an elderly lady on sidewalk had her pace accelerate until she had to
head for telephone pole to stop, then slowly accelereated until she came to next telephone pole
to keep her from losing her footing. My father told me that she had had the influenza that
killed so many towards end of WWI, and had Parkinson's Disease as a residual, of which her
involuntary acceleration was a symptom, called festination.
And there is the Latin motto: Festina lente. - Make haste slowly.