Is the term “Fast & Loose” a poker phrase in origin?
I don’t know.
But I’ll venture a couple of guesses as to how it came to be:
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In a machine, high tolerances mean a close fit. Parts that fit closely together are more difficult to assemble quickly than parts that do not. So sloppy work can be made quickly but will not be as “tight” as meticulous work. A case in point is the AK series and M-16 series of firearms. The M-16 is a very well-made machine. The AK is much “looser”. The M-16 is more accurate, but the AK is less susceptible to stoppage due to debris. Applied to information, “fast and loose” arguments may be picked apart so that the point may be lost in the argument. A “tight” argument, one that is slow and methodical, is more resistant to nit-pickers – but may not “play” as well.
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In poker, cards are “held tight to the breast”. That is, the player is trying to ensure that his opponents do not see his hand. A methodical player may weigh options and odds to gain an advantage. A player who plays “recklessly” may fool his opponents into thinking he has a better hand than he actually holds. Not holding his cards close and betting quickly may give the impression that he is very confident in his chances of winning. “Fast and loose” playing may gain the desired outcome through sheer audacity, but the cards may not support the player’s confidence. In other words, a player who “plays fast and loose” may win by keeping his opponents off-guard.
Is it a poker phrase? Again, I don’t know. But you can see how the accusation of “playing fast and loose” means that the person doing so may be trying to win by playing on emotions rather than by appealing to logic and sticking to the whole truth.
I am neither a poker player nor a politician.
I might venture a SWAG that we are talking about opposites (fast being used as “fastened”).
hammerbach has it. To “play fast and loose” is to act with inconsistency or dishonesty, as if alternating between the extremes of fast (tight) and loose. There is a type of pulley called a “fast and loose pulley”; it’s actually two pulleys, one fastened to the shaft, and the other turning freely on it. Machinery can be engaged or disengaged by switching between the pulleys.
I’m with Johnny L.A. here.
To me, fast and loose means that proper attention hasn’t been paid to the details. And in assemblage of machinery, it’s meaning is quite literal.
I have always known the expression to be “Fast, Loose and Lovely”? Maybe it’s a UK thang?!
Be recklessly irresponsible, unreliable, or deceitful, as in This reporter is known for playing fast and loose with the facts. This term probably originated in a 16th-century game called “fast and loose,” played at country fairs. A belt was doubled and held with the loop at table’s edge, and the player had to catch the loop with a stick as the belt was unrolled - an impossible feat. The term was already used figuratively by the late 1500s, especially for trifling with someone’s affections.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust
(I didn’t know that… )
IIRC this turn of phrase has a very differant origin.
‘Fast’ and ‘Loose’ are both archery terms.
If one were about to fire and arrow one would shout ‘loose’ but if a reply came back ‘fast’ it meant the someone was in a position of danger.ie Do not fire I’m in the way.
The saying itself refers to a form of risk taking.
I have heard it said(and no I cannot provide a cite, which is why I am not making definative statements) that this dates from the times when hunting in Royal forests could carry a huge penalty.
If a gamekeeper suspected that there were poachers around, he might shout out ‘Fast!’ hoping that his quarry would think they were in imminent danger and so reveal their location by shouting out ‘fast!’
This would be a form of bluff and counter bluff, with possibly dangerous consequences, and the poacher would be playing fast and loose.
Fasinating. Thank you…mm, thinking if T.H. White knew anything about it. Must check.
For an expansion upon the answer which was so correctly provided by Steve Wright, you shoud read Mr. Quinion’s column on this and other games in history. http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/easypick.htm
I have to admit, my first thought was of the archery terms… but, like casdave, I wasn’t able to find any solid references to this, whereas the game-based origin looks pretty soundly documented.
Makes me wonder when, exactly, the “fast” command came into archery - perhaps “fast” is derived from “fast and loose”, and not the other way around?
Instinctively, I rather like the archery explanation. However – and this may be a more recent usage – I did think ‘hang’ fire was the more usual term for withholding rather than ‘fast’. But the language evolves so I mention that just in passing.
Surprised no one’s popped in with a Shakespearian reference…can’t recall anything in Henry V…
Anthony and Cleopatra, Act IV, scene 12, ll. 29-33:
O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm,–
Whose eye beck’d forth my wars, and call’d them home;
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,–
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
King John, Act III, scene 1, ll. 247-50
And shall these hands, so lately purg’d of blood,
So newly join’d in love, so strong in both,
Unyoke this seizure and this kind regreet?
Play fast and loose with faith?
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act III, scene 1, l. 69
To sell a bargain well is as cunning as fast and loose.
Serves you right for asking, really… “Hang fire” is specifically a gunnery term, isn’t it? (Refers to the delay between the primer and the main charge going off.) When I took to the archery field, the command to stop shooting was either “Fast” or “Come down” (which latter meant, in addition, don’t stay at full draw); I’ve known archers who got terribly annoyed if you claimed to “fire” an arrow (you don’t “fire” an arrow, you “shoot” it), but whether these terms were current in Shakespeare’s time, I don’t know…
Keeping you busy at work, I see 
The gunnery origin for “hang” is both interesting and more logical and I bow to your better knowledge of Archery. ‘Fast and loose’ seems to have preserved some of that original ‘dangerous’ quality, which is rather nice.