FAST TRACK

noun, adjective, and verb Also written fast-track when used as an adjective or verb (Business World) (Lifestyle and Leisure) noun: A hectic lifestyle or job involving rapid promotion and intense competition; also called the fast lane. adjective: High-flying, enjoying or capable of rapid advancement. transitive verb: To promote (a person) rapidly, to accelerate or rush (something) through. Etymology: A figurative use of the horse-racing term fast track (which dates from the thirties), a race-track on which the going is dry and hard enough to enable the horses to run fast; track has a long history in US terms to do with careers, for example in the concept of a tenure track for academics. History and Usage: The figurative use of fast track in business arose in the mid sixties; it may owe its popularity to US President Richard Nixon, who claimed at that time that he preferred New York to California because it was the fast track. Certainly it became a vogue word in US business circles during the seventies, in all its grammatical uses, and developed a number of derivatives: the agent-noun fast-tracker (and even fast-tracknik), a person who lives or works in the fast track; also the verbal noun fast-tracking, the practice of promoting staff rapidly or accelerating processes. In the eighties this vogue has spread to British English, although in the UK fast lane is still probably better known as the name for the hectic, competitive lifestyle of the yuppie. Some of the fast trackers seem so preoccupied with getting ahead that they don't always notice the implications of what they do. Fortune June 1977, p. 160 Many a thrusting young manager or fast-track public servant has had his hopes dashed. The Times 15 Dec. 1984, p. 7 An assurance was given to 'fast track' the required planning procedures. Stock & Land (Melbourne) 5 Mar. 1987, p. 3