Make Your Point > Archived Issues > FESTINA LENTE
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"Brothers and sisters of the Unbroken Spine," Corvina calls out. "Good morning. Festina lente."
"Festina lente," the black-robes all murmur in return.
This scene will sound familiar if you've read Robin Sloan's novel Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store, with characters who obsess over decoding messages, their eagerness bordering on clumsy haste: "festina lente" means "make haste slowly."
It's an example of an ox____on: a comment that contradicts itself to make a sharp point.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
make your point with...
"FESTINA LENTE"
This phrase is Latin for "hasten slowly," or "make haste slowly."
In other words: hurry, but hurry slowly. Do important things at a quick pace, but at the same time, do those things slowly enough to be careful and deliberate.
Pronunciation:
FESS tin uh LEN tee
Part of speech:
The phrase "festina lente" is a full sentence by itself.
But we can also use it like a noun, the uncountable kind, to mean the idea (the ideal, the principle, or the practice) of hastening slowly: "I admire her festina lente."
Other forms:
none
How to use it:
To show that it's a foreign phrase, keep it in italics: festina lente.
You might use "festina lente" as a command, a motto, or a comment, letting it stand alone as a sentence.
Or, you might use it like a noun, talking about someone's festina lente, or the festina lente of someone's method, approach, or personality.
examples:
"Festina lente... pertains to the collecting and conservation of antiquities—but also to the larger project of museums overall. To 'make haste slowly,' is to balance urgency and diligence, risk and caution."
— Lisa Fischman, as quoted in Art Fix Daily, 23 January 2013
"The proliferation of spring-driven watches and clocks...had an impact on more secular humanists through the cult of festina lente..., a theory of self-discipline that emphasized the need to balance competing aspects of the self. Just as every forward motion of the clock's crown wheel was checked by a reciprocal breaking movement of the escapement, each hasty, passionate, or reckless urge within the soul was supposed to be checked or controlled by discretion, reason, and deliberation."
— A. Cohen, Technology and the Early Modern Self, 2009
has this page helped you understand "festina lente"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "festina lente" without saying "rush slowly" or "slow and steady wins the race."
try it out:
Fill in the blank: "Though I want to hurl headlong (into some activity, or toward some goal), I remind myself: Festina lente."
Example: "Though I want to hurl headlong through the book and ignore the exercises at the close of each chapter, I remind myself: Festina lente."
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
Our game last month was Distinctive Definitions.
In each issue, you considered a definition provided by a poet, a writer, or a philosopher, and tried to supply the definiendum: the thing or concept being defined.
From the previous issue:
Proverbs 25:11 says, "A _____ is like apples of gold in a setting of silver."
Answer: "A word fitly spoken."
Our game for June is "Inspired by, but in no way associated with, the game show Chain Reaction."
In each issue this month, try filling in both puzzles—the easier one and the tougher one—by supplying the terms to complete the chains.
Here's an example:
Adverse
R_______
Speed
For the puzzle above, you think, what word that starts with R often follows the word "adverse" and, separately, often precedes the word "speed"? The answer is "reaction," since we often say "adverse reaction" and "reaction speed."
Give these a try today:
An easier puzzle:
Peripheral
V_____
Statement
A tougher puzzle:
Aggregate
D_____
C____
Ball
review this word:
1. The opposite of FESTINA LENTE is
A. MAKE IT COMPLICATED.
B. MAKE SHORT WORK OF IT.
C. MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF IT.
2. She explains the festina lente of her method, of how she makes her art: "_____."
A. Quality in, quality out
B. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast
C. Style is the substance, substance the style
a final word:
Make Your Point is crafted with love and brought to you each weekday morning by Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From Liesl's blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
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Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
"Brothers and sisters of the Unbroken Spine," Corvina calls out. "Good morning. Festina lente."
"FESTINA LENTE" This phrase is Latin for "hasten slowly," or "make haste slowly."
"Festina lente... pertains to the collecting and conservation of antiquities—but also to the larger project of museums overall. To 'make haste slowly,' is to balance urgency and diligence, risk and caution."
Explain the meaning of "festina lente" without saying "rush slowly" or "slow and steady wins the race."
Fill in the blank: "Though I want to hurl headlong (into some activity, or toward some goal), I remind myself: Festina lente."
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. The opposite of FESTINA LENTE is
|