# "Fresh!" And "Fast Asleep"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fresh-and-fast-asleep/572652>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 26, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fresh-and-fast-asleep/572652 "2011-02-26T01:04:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fresh-and-fast-asleep/572652/1 "2011-02-26T01:04:48Z")

</div>

Here I mean _fresh_ to mean “you got a lot of nerve”, usually followed by a slap in the face.

I agree that the word may originate from the German word “frech” meaning the same thing.

However the German for “fresh” describing the opposite of “stale”, is “frisch”.

The phrase “fast asleep”, in my opinion does not relate to speed, but the “deepness” of the sleep.

“Fast” originating from the German word “fest”, meaning a _sound_ sleep.

Can you think of other words the English language has “borrowed” from other languages which don’t necessarily mean the same thing?

I hope I have expressed all of this correctly, my sentence structuring fails me sometimes.

Thanks

Quasi

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fresh-and-fast-asleep/572652/2 "2011-02-26T02:08:57Z")

</div>

> [@Quasimodem](#):
>
> The phrase “fast asleep”, in my opinion does not relate to speed, but the “deepness” of the sleep.

More simply, “fast” means “still”/“unmoving.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fresh-and-fast-asleep/572652/3 "2011-02-26T02:26:22Z")

</div>

> [@Larry\_Mudd](#):
>
> More simply, “fast” means “still”/“unmoving.”

Still, unmoving or secured, as in ‘stuck fast’, ‘make fast that line’, and ‘fasten it’.