fairy
Etymology
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Etymology
From Middle English faierie, fairie, from Old French faerie, from fae + -erie, from Latin fāta.
Attested in English from about 1300, first in the sense of "enchantment, illusion, dream" ("that thou herdest is fairye") and shortly thereafter "realm of the fays, fairy-land" and "the inhabitants of fairyland, collectively".
Pronunciation Nounfairy
- (uncountable, obsolete) The realm of faerie; enchantment, illusion.
- A mythical being of human form with magical powers, known in many sizes and descriptions, although often depicted in modern illustrations only as a small sprite with gauze-like wings, especially one that is female. Fairies are revered in some modern forms of paganism.
- An enchantress, or creature of overpowering charm.
- (Britain, obsolete, colloquial) An attractive young woman.
- 1920, H. C. McNeile "Snapper", 'Bulldog Drummond':
- "When are we going to see this fairy?" demanded Algy.
"You, personally, never. You're far too immoral. I might let the others look at her from a distance in a year or two."
- 1942, Dennis Wheatley, 'Gunmen, Gallants and Ghosts':
- As she took out her key she was quite unaware that three pairs of eyes were watching her with interest from across the street. [...]
‘Strewth–’e ain’t ‘arf got a fairy this time,’ remarked the husky Mr. Clegg.
- (Northern England, US, derogatory, colloquial) A male homosexual, especially one who is effeminate.
- 1933, Nathanael West, 'Miss Lonelyhearts' : [Miss Lonelyhearts is male.]:
- The cripple returned the smile and stuck out his hand. Miss Lonelyhearts clasped it, and they stood this way, smiling and holding hands, until Mrs. Doyle reëntered the room.
"What a sweet pair of fairies you guys are," she said.
The cripple pulled his hand away and made as though to strike his wife.
- 1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 4, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC ↗, part 3:
- We saw a horrible sight in the bar: a white hipster fairy had come in wearing a Hawaiian shirt and was asking the big drummer if he could sit in.
- A member of two species of hummingbird in the genus Heliothryx.
- A legendary Chinese immortal.
- Synonyms: xian, immortal
- (supernatural creature) fay, fey, fae, sprite; see also goblin (hostile)
- (male homosexual) fag (US), faggot (US), poof (UK), queen
- French: fée, féetaud
- German: Fee, Elfe, Feenwesen, Naturgeister, Geist, Alb, Elb, Elben, Kobold
- Italian: fata, foletto, foletta, folletto, folletta
- Portuguese: fada, elfo
- Russian: фе́я
- Spanish: hada, fada
- French: tapette, folle
- Italian: checca, finocchio
- Portuguese: bicha, marica
- Russian: го́мик
- Spanish: marica, mujercita
fairy
- Like a fairy; fanciful, whimsical, delicate.
- 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC ↗, page 287 ↗:….—a large cashmere shawl, with its border of roses, thrown carelessly on a chair—a crimson cushion, where lay sleeping a Blenheim dog, almost small enough to have passed through the royal ring in that most fairy tale of the White Cat:—all bespoke a lady's room.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
