- rapid (adj.)
- 1630s, from Latin rapidus "hasty, snatching," from rapere "hurry away, carry off, seize, plunder," from PIE root *reup- "to snatch" (cf. Greek ereptomai "devour," harpazein "snatch away"). Rapid-transit first attested 1852, in reference to street railways; rapid eye movement is from 1906.