Faery or Fairy?
- Thread starter Dinosaur
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Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
The word faierie was borrowed from French in the 13th century, but re-spelled "fairy" in Middle English. However, the original meaning of the French word was "enchantment" or "fairyland," and in English it was broadened to include the creatures of fairyland. Late in the 16th century the word "faerie" was coined to recapture the original, narrower meaning of "fairyland."
Therefore to use "faerie" to mean a fairy, the creature, is incorrect. But to use it as an adjective to mean "enchanted," "fairy-like," "of fantasy," etc., is perhaps a little affected, but it's correct usage.
Nonetheless it's not widely used in America except by people who want to show off their education, like young college students.
Therefore to use "faerie" to mean a fairy, the creature, is incorrect. But to use it as an adjective to mean "enchanted," "fairy-like," "of fantasy," etc., is perhaps a little affected, but it's correct usage.
Nonetheless it's not widely used in America except by people who want to show off their education, like young college students.
Or by Shakespeare in A Midsummer's Night Dream.
Or by people who still play D&D.... lol
On a related note however, I suspect that the word fey (as an adjective I think...?) is related somehow.
Fraggle?
Pandaemoni
Valued Senior Member
Actually "fey" descends from the Old English "fæge" ("doomed to die" and also "timid" and related to the Middle High German "veige" which meant "doomed" or "timid"), whereas the root of "Faerie" is, as Fraggle noted, from the Old French with its original root is the Latin "fata" (the Fates). The Fates are a group of supernatural being, but both words do have a link to the concept of "fate."
Thay "fey" is sometimes used to mean "fairy-like" suggests people are making the mental connection between the two, and the terms converging as a result, even though their etymologies are separate.
It would appear that fête is derived from Old French (and is related to "feast") but fayre (and fair - both senses - fair to look at and the gathering) is from fæger, (beautiful, pleasant to look at), which faeries/ fairies are certainly supposed to be. IIRC in the original sense/ mythologies a fairy, and things of faerie weren't these wimpy little Tinkerbell-sized munchkins, but at least human-sized.
Now all we need is Fraggle to connect fæger and fæge...
Now all we need is Fraggle to connect fæger and fæge...
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
We seem to all be working from the same sources. I don't see anything tracing either word back further, no cognates outside the Germanic language group, no way to trace them back to a common Indo-European root.
Etymology is frustrating. When we can't find the origin of a word there are too many possibilities:
- It came from proto-Indo-European, but only the Germanic tribe hung onto it and everyone else let it go.
- The Germanic people picked it up from some non-Indo-European group they met in their travels.
- It was a frivolous invention, like doohickey or rambunctious.
- A child, a foreigner or someone with a speech impediment mispronounced a word and everyone thought it was so cute they picked it up. This is why we say chaise lounge instead of chaire longue, "long chair."
Pandaemoni
Valued Senior Member
what about the word Fae
Pandaemoni
Valued Senior Member
I only know what the sources say, and most suggest that Fae and Faerie were related in Old French. More recently, though, I see a reference to it being a variant spelling of "fey" or of "fay", http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fae although other sources also indicatate that "faerie" and "fey" come from different roots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy (stating "fey, originally meaning "fated to die" or "having forebodings of death" (hence "visionary", "mad", and various other derived meanings) is completely unrelated, being from Old English fæge, Proto-Germanic *faigja- and Proto-Indo-European *poikyo-")).
just asking because I've seen all of these used to refer to such entities and it really gets confusing.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
* * * * NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR * * * *
This thread is about etymology. If you want to ask about phonetics and pronunciation, please start a separate thread.
Thanks,
F.R.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
Cool. I didn't think to use Wikipedia as a source for etymologies.