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A fastness is a place you go because it is hard for other people to get to — a high mountain, a thick forest, a castle on a rock. The point is not comfort. The point is that enemies, or the outside world, cannot easily follow you. You mostly meet this word in stories and history books, not in the shop or on the bus: writers talk about a mountain fastness, a highland fastness, a rebel fastness. It feels old and a little grand. Though actually, the ‘fast’ here is not the everyday ‘quick’. It is the older ‘fast’ that still hides in hold fast, stuck fast, and steadfast: firm, not moving. So a fastness is a firm hold — a place that stays put, and keeps you put. English also uses fastness for how well a colour stays in cloth (colour fastness), but that is a different job for the same spelling. This entry is the safe, hard-to-reach place.
要塞；險要的據點
組成From Old English fæst (‘firm, fixed, not moving’) + -nes (the same kind of ending as modern -ness). It first named the quality of being firm; the ‘safe, hard-to-reach place’ grew out of that.
原始詞典資料8 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
fastnessnoun/ˈfɑːs(t)nəs/
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The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
- [T]he thing, as it is, having firſt taken vp her ſtand in the memory, and there by the way of knowledge and witting, imprinted it-ſelfe, it were hard it ſhould not repreſent it ſelfe to the imagination, diſplacing and ſupplanting falſehood, which therein can have no ſuch footing, or ſetled faſtneſſe: […]
- [T]his is the ſure, infallible Teſt of Love, that the Meaſure of its Strength is to be taken by the Faſtneſs of its Hold.
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The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
- Although aniline dyes have replaced most natural dyes in the modern era, natural dyers still revere cochineal for its brilliance and fastness.
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The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
- [Frog:] Why are all of us fleein'? What dire peril threatens our sylvan fastness? [Bug:] Just run! Your fastness shouldn't be too slow.
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The quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
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archaicThe quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
- But now his cruelty ſo ſore ſhe drad, / That to thoſe fennes for faſtneſſe ſhe did fly, / And there her ſelfe did hyde from his hard tyranny.
- The Foes had left the faſtneſs of their Place, / Prevail'd in Fight, and had his Men in Chace.
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obsoleteThe quality or state of being fast (in various senses).
- Which was brought to paſſe I beleue, […] by a good way of Epitome, in binding him ſelfe to tranſlate meros Atticos Oratores, and ſo to bring his ſtyle, from all lowſe groſneſſe, to ſoch firme faſtnes in latin, as is in Demoſthenes in Greeke.
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Something that is fast, or that causes someone or something to be fast (in various senses).
- [I]f the VVelſh compelled by famine ventred out of their ſtrengthes or faſtneſſes, in or about Snovvdon, the Garriſon Souldiers of Gannocke vvere ready to intercept and kill them; […]
- [T]he ſlaves that yet remained in the faſtneſſes of Jamaica, attached to the Spaniſh, and hoſtile to the Engliſh ſettlers, continued to be troubleſome, and at times formidable.
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regionalSomething that is fast, or that causes someone or something to be fast (in various senses).
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。