lief

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The Word of the Day for April 21 is:

lief   \LEEF\   adverb 
     : soon, gladly 

Example sentence:
     In Shakespeare's comedy _As You Like It_, when Orlando is 
tardy meeting his love, Rosalind, she wittily reproaches him 
with the words, "Come no more in my sight. I had as lief be 
woo'd of a snail."

Did you know?
     "Lief" began as "leof" in Old English and has since 
appeared in many literary classics, first as an adjective and 
then as an adverb. It got its big break in the epic poem 
_Beowulf_ as an adjective meaning "dear" or "beloved." The 
adverb first appeared in the 13th century, and in 1390, it was 
used in John Gower's collection of love stories, _Confessio 
Amantis_. Since that time, it has graced the pages of works by 
William Makepeace Thackeray, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and D.H. 
Lawrence, among others. Today, the adjective is considered to be 
archaic and the adverb is used much less frequently than in days 
of yore. It still pops up now and then, however, in the 
phrases "had as lief," "would as lief," "had liefer," and "would 
liefer."