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fey - 6 dictionary results

fey

  [fey]
Use fey in a Sentence
–adjective
1. British Dialect. doomed; fated to die.
2. Chiefly Scot. appearing to be under a spell; marked by an apprehension of death, calamity, or evil.
3. supernatural; unreal; enchanted: elves, fairies, and other fey creatures.
4. being in unnaturally high spirits, as were formerly thought to precede death.
5. whimsical; strange; otherworldly: a strange child with a mysterious smile and a fey manner.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE fǣge doomed to die; c. ON feigr doomed, G feig cowardly
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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fey   (fā)   
adj.  
    1. Having or displaying an otherworldly, magical, or fairylike aspect or quality: "She's got that fey look as though she's had breakfast with a leprechaun" (Dorothy Burnham).
    2. Having visionary power; clairvoyant.
    3. Appearing touched or crazy, as if under a spell.
    4. Fated to die soon.
    5. Full of the sense of approaching death.
  2. Scots
    1. Fated to die soon.
    2. Full of the sense of approaching death.

[Middle English feie, fated to die, from Old English fǣge.]
fey'ly adv., fey'ness n.
Word History: The history of the words fey and fay illustrates a rather fey coincidence. Our word fay, "fairy, elf," the descendant of Middle English faie, "a person or place possessed of magical properties," and first recorded around 1390, goes back to Old French fae, "fairy," the same word that has given us fairy. Fae in turn comes from Vulgar Latin Fāta, "the goddess of fate," from Latin fātum, "fate." If fay goes back to fate, so does fey in a manner of speaking, for its Old English ancestor fǣge meant "fated to die." The sense we are more familiar with, "magical or fairylike in quality," seems to have arisen partly because of the resemblance in sound between fay and fey.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Fey

Fey\, a. [AS. f?ga, Icel. feigr, OHG. feigi.] Fated; doomed. [Old Eng. & Scot.]

Fey

Fey\, n. [See Fay faith.] Faith. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

Fey

Fey\, v. t. [Cf. Feague.] To cleanse; to clean out. [Obs.] --Tusser.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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fey 
"of excitement that presages death," from O.E. fæge "doomed to die," also "timid;" and/or from O.N. feigr, both from P.Gmc. *faigjo- (cf. M.Du. vege, M.H.G. veige "doomed," also "timid," Ger. feige "cowardly"). Preserved in Scottish. Sense of "displaying unearthly qualities" and "disordered in the mind (like one about to die)" led to modern ironic sense of "affected."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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