Numbers and time in Italian

Near the end of the list sits presto, the one word here that English already owns and has quietly misheard. « Presto » arrived from music and from the stage: as a tempo marking it means very fast, and « hey presto » is what a conjuror says when a thing happens all at once. So the English ear reads speed into it. Everyday Italian almost never does. Presto is about position in time, not rate: mi alzo presto is I get up early, not I get up quickly; a presto is see you soon; presto o tardi is sooner or later; è ancora presto means there is still time. Where speed is really meant, Italian reaches elsewhere — veloce, in fretta, di corsa. Only one everyday use keeps the borrowed sense alive, the command fai presto, hurry up, and there being early and being quick amount to the same thing. That is what makes the word awkward. It is not unfamiliar; it is familiar in the wrong half of its meaning, and half-knowledge is harder to correct than none.