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Fey

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fey¹

  • /feɪ/

Sounds like fay · Rhymes with -eɪ

Where it comes from

From Middle English feye (“fated to die”), from Old English fǣġe (“doomed to die, timid”), from Proto-West Germanic *faigī, from Proto-Germanic *faigijaz (“cowardly, wicked”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyk- (“ill-meaning, bad”).

Akin to Old Saxon fēgi, whence Dutch veeg (“doomed, near death”), Old High German feigi (“appointed for death, ungodly”) whence German feige (“cowardly”), Old Norse feigr (“doomed”) whence the Icelandic feigur (“doomed to die”), Old English fāh (“outlawed, hostile”). More at foe.

adjective feyer · more fey · feyest · most fey

  1. archaic, dialectal, poetic About to die; doomed; on the verge of sudden or violent death. Surely the Gods have made him fey, having ordained his destruction and our humbling before these Demons.
  2. obsolete Dying; dead.
  3. Ireland, Scotland Possessing second sight, clairvoyance, or clairaudience.
  4. Overrefined, affected. His interlocutor was whimsical if not downright fey. He pushed his spectacles to the top of his nose. He shoved them into his greying locks like an effeminate racing driver. He gave Pym sherry and put a hand on his backside in order to propel him to a long window that gave on to a row of council hou
  5. Strange or otherworldly. Gratefully she crooned with them, so inimitably that old Christine Inglis, on her way to early Mass, vowed the girl was fey.
  6. Spellbound.

fey²

  • /feɪ/

Sounds like fay · Rhymes with -eɪ

Where it comes from

From Middle English faie, fei (“a place or person possessed with magical properties”), from Middle French feie, fee (“fairy", "fae”), from Old French fae, from Medieval Latin fāda. More at fairy.

adjective feyer · more fey · feyest · most fey

  1. Magical or fairylike.

noun fey · feys

  1. countable, uncountable A fairy.
  2. countable, uncountable Fairy folk collectively.

Similar: fairy

fey³

  • /feɪ/

Sounds like fay · Rhymes with -eɪ

noun

  1. alternative Alternative form of pe (“Semitic letter”).pe

fey⁴

  • /feɪ/

Sounds like fay · Rhymes with -eɪ

Where it comes from

Inherited from Middle English feien (“to cleanse”), from Old Norse fægja (“to cleanse, polish”), from Proto-Germanic *fēgijaną (“to decorate, make beautiful”), from Proto-Indo-European *pōḱ-, *pēḱ- (“to clean, adorn”). Cognate with Swedish feja (“to sweep”), Danish feje (“to sweep”), German fegen (“to cleanse, scour, sweep”), Dutch vegen (“to sweep, strike”). More at feague, fake, fair.

verb feys · feying · feyed

  1. UK, dialectal, obsolete, transitive To cleanse. to fey a drain or ditch

Fey⁵

proper noun Feys

  1. A surname.

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