Quick.

Living; hence animated, lively; hence fast, active, brisk (Anglo-Saxon, cwic, living, alive). Our expression, “Look alive,” means Be brisk.

Quick at meat, quick at work. In French, “Bonne bête s’échauffe en mangeant,” or “Hardi gagneur, hardi mangeur.” The opposite would certainly be true: A dawdle in one thing is a dawdle in all.

The quick and dead. The living and the dead.