Expedient means useful for the moment, whatever the principle. Politically expedient, an expedient solution, it seemed expedient.
It is faintly damning: calling a decision expedient says it was convenient rather than right. As a noun an expedient is a makeshift, and the Latin behind it means to free the feet, as of an animal caught in a snare.
1adjectiveexpedientUseful for the moment, whatever the principle.
“It was politically expedient for the mayor to support the project before the election.”
expedient is a quality.
Latin expedire means to free the feet, from ex-, out, plus pes, foot.
Proto-Indo-European
*ped-
Latin
expediens
Old French
expedient
Middle English
expedient
English, today
expedient
Built from
From Middle English expedient, from Old French expedient, from Latin expediens (stem expedient-), present participle of expedire (“to bring forward, to dispatch, to expedite; impers. to be profitable, serviceable, advantageous, expedient”), from ex (“out”) + pēs (“foot, hoof”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA