The article deals with designations of sluggish and prompt people motivated by nominations of mythological characters, with reference to Russian dialects. It is noted that the meanings of speed can only be found among the names of lower demons, who are believed to be able to contact with the humans and to make people be active or sluggish. The names of the devil and the demon are the most productive in this regard, as the sign of velocity is characteristic of their image. Images of these characters are worked out in detail in "speed" vocabulary and phraseology. A quick person is compared to the devil and the demon. Prototypical situations in which the devil and the demon demonstrate the ability to move quickly are considered as a standard of movement with high speed. The choice of an unnaturally high speed by a man is explained by the influence of the devil or the demon on his consciousness. The names of such characters as shulikuns, kostroma and yagarma can also be used as the basis for speed nominations. In the first case, the semantic development of the name of the mythological character is based on the ideas of his behavior and appearance (shulikuns are short, nimble and fussy). In the other two cases, the semantic development is determined by the belonging of kostroma and yagarma to the number of characters of intimidation and their rapprochement with demonic forces: images of mythological characters possessing "supernatural" properties are very productive as a source of speed nominations and are used to describe "outstanding" human features. Semantics of slowness is represented in rare examples (makura). The nominations of kikimora (shishimora) and kumo-kha have contradictory speed interpretation attributed to both high and low speed.