Accelerate vs expedite?

Question

Hi !What is the difference between accelerate and expedite?Thx a lot!AnKa

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]What is the difference between accelerate and expedite?[/nq]
That would depend on what you are talking about when you use the words.
expedite

1. to speed up the progress of; hasten: to expedite shipments.
2. to accomplish promptly, as a piece of business; dispatch: toexpedite one's duties.
Expedite is a word used in the business world and in government and the military. It is often used to refer to the movement of orders, paperwork or goods.
accelerate

1. to cause faster or greater activity, development, progress,advancement, etc., in: to accelerate economic growth.
2. to hasten the occurrence of: to accelerate the fall of agovernment.

3. Mech. to change the velocity of (a body) or the rate of(motion); cause to undergo acceleration.

4. to reduce the time required for (a course of study) byintensifying the work, eliminating detail, etc.
Accelerate can also be used to refer to speeding the movement of orders, paperwork or goods. But it has in addition uses that you wouldn't use 'expedite' for. Definition 3 for instance is a specific physics and engineering term.
So you can either accelerate or expedite economic growth, or a course of study, or a shipment of goods. But you only accelerate a car by stepping on the throttle.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]So you can either accelerate or expedite economic growth, or a course of study, or a shipment of goods. But you only accelerate a car by stepping on the throttle...[/nq]
..., or accelerator (whose function is clearly implied by its name and whose name is easily associated with its distinctive meaning - not conveyed by 'expedite'). I hope my comment was pretty explicit and if not delete the brackets and its content.
regards, mike

Usenet · Answer

I think of expedite as aiding in the completion of, but not necessarily hurrying it along. It could still finish in the normal time. Accelerate is to speed it up. That's just my opinion. Found this on the web from an etymology site:
"Another learned borrowing is expedite. It comes from Latin, expedire meaning "to free from a snare", but its literal meaning is "to remove a foot". Its modern English meaning suggests speeding things up by removing impediments. Yes, as you might have guessed, to be impeded is literally to be "in-foot-ed"

Accelerate vs expedite?

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