fay

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: fā, IPA^(key): /feɪ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Homophone: fey
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1

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

Noun

fay (plural fays)

1. A fairy.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     that mighty Princesse did complaine / Of grieuous mischiefes, which a wicked Fay / Had wrought [...].

Synonyms

• See fairy

Translations

Adjective

fay (comparative more fay, superlative most fay)

1. Fairy like.

See also

• fey
• fae

Etymology 2

From Middle English feyen, feien, from Old English fēġan (“to join, unite”), from Proto-Germanic *fōgijaną (“to join”), from *fōgō (“joint, slot”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Akin to Old Frisian fōgia (“to join”), Old Saxon fōgian (“to join”), Middle Low German fögen (“to join, add”), Dutch voegen (“to add, place”), Old High German fuogen (“to connect”) (German fügen (“to connect”)), Old English fōn (“to catch”). More at fang.

Verb

fay (third-person singular simple present fays, present participle faying, simple past and past participle fayed)

1. (obsolete) To fit.
2. (shipbuilding, transitive) To join (pieces of timber) tightly. The long edges of the staves of a barrel have to be fayed so that when it is assembled it will not leak.
   • Model Shipbuilders, 2010:

     I have a strip cutter and I can cut the exact widths I need to fit, they are easy to fay together and attach very firmly to the bulkheads.

3. (shipbuilding, intransitive) Of pieces of timber: to lie close together.
4. (obsolete) To fadge.

Synonyms

• (to join or unite closely): affix, attach, put together; see also Thesaurus:join

Derived terms

• faying surface

Translations

Adjective

fay (comparative more fay, superlative most fay)

1. Fitted closely together.
   • US Patent Application 20070033853, 2006:

     Under the four outer corners of the horizontal frame platform 22 are four tubular leg sleeves 23 that are fay together one at each outer corner.

Etymology 3

From Middle English fegien, fæien (“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

fay (third-person singular simple present fays, present participle faying, simple past and past participle fayed)

1. (dialectal) To cleanse; clean out.

Translations

Etymology 4

Abbreviation of ofay.

Noun

fay (plural fays)

1. (US slang) A white person.

Translations

Adjective

fay (comparative more fay, superlative most fay)

1. (US slang) White; white-skinned.
   • 1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “They Found the Body in a Ditch”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 62:

     I really went for Ray's press roll on the drums; he was the first fay boy I ever heard who mastered this vital foundation of jazz music.

Translations

Anagrams

• FYA, YAF

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English fāg.

Noun

fay

1. Alternative form of fou

Etymology 2

From Old English fǣġe.

Adjective

fay

1. Alternative form of fey (“marked for death”)

Nùng

Etymology

Cognate with Thai ไฟ (fai), Lao ໄຟ (fai).

Noun

fay

1. fire

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from French faille.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /faɪ/

Noun

fay (definite accusative fayı, plural faylar)

1. (geology) fault

   Kuzey Anadolu Fay Hattı dünyanın en tehlikeli faylarından biridir.

   The North Anatolian Fault Line is one of the most dangerous faults in the world.

Declension

References

• “fay”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu