different between fade vs darken

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fe?d/
• Rhymes: -e?d

Etymology 1

From Middle English fade, vad, vade (“faded, pale, withered, weak”), from Middle Dutch vade (“weak, faint, limp”), from Old French fade (“weak, witless”), of obscure origin. Probably from Vulgar Latin *fatidus, from Latin fatuus (“insipid”).

Adjective

fade (comparative fader, superlative fadest)

1. (archaic) Weak; insipid; tasteless.

   Synonym: dull

   • 1825, Francis Jeffery, review of Theodric by Thomas Campbell

     Passages that are somewhat fade.

   • 1827, Thomas De Quincey, The Last Days of Kant (published in Blackwood's Magazine)

     His masculine taste gave him a sense of something fade and ludicrous.

Translations

Noun

fade (plural fades)

1. (golf) A golf shot that curves intentionally to the player's right (if they are right-handed) or to the left (if left-handed).

   Coordinate terms: slice, hook, draw

   • 2011, James Lythgoe, The Golf Swing: It's all in the hands (page 88)

     If you confine yourself to hitting straight shots while you are developing your golf swing, you are less likely to develop a preference for hitting a fade or a draw.

2. A haircut where the hair is short or shaved on the sides of the head and longer on top. See also high-top fade and low fade.
3. (slang) A fight.
4. (music, cinematography) A gradual decrease in the brightness of a shot or the volume of sound or music (as a means of cutting to a new scene or starting a new song).
5. (slang) The act of disappearing from a place so as not to be found; covert departure.
   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things

     Ace could have done a fade. Instead, he gathered all his courage — which was not inconsiderable, even in his middle age — and went to see the Flying Corson Brothers.

Derived terms

• brake fade

Translations

Verb

fade (third-person singular simple present fades, present participle fading, simple past and past participle faded)

1. (transitive, golf) To hit the ball with the shot called a fade.
   • 2011, Gary McCord, Golf For Dummies (page 284)

     The Golden Bear faded the ball from left to right with great consistency, so he seldom had to worry about trouble on the left.

2. (intransitive) To grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.

   • The earth mourneth and fadeth away.

3. (intransitive) To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color.
4. (intransitive) To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.

   The milkman's whistling faded into the distance.

   • 1856, Eleanor Marx-Aveling (translator), Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter XI,

     A strange thing was that Bovary, while continually thinking of Emma, was forgetting her. He grew desperate as he felt this image fading from his memory in spite of all efforts to retain it. Yet every night he dreamt of her; it was always the same dream. He drew near her, but when he was about to clasp her she fell into decay in his arms.

   • They say your love will surely fade girl
     When things go wrong and trouble calls

5. (transitive) To cause to fade.
6. (transitive, gambling) To bet against.

Synonyms

• (grow weak, lose strength): weaken, wither
• (lose freshness, color, or brightness): blanch, bleach
• (sink away): decrease, diminish, wane

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English fade, fede, of uncertain origin. Compare Old English ?efæd (“orderly, tidy, discreet, well-regulated”). See also fad.

Adjective

fade (comparative fader or more fade, superlative fadest or most fade)

1. (archaic) Strong; bold; doughty.

Anagrams

• Deaf, EDFA, deaf

Danish

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?d?

Adjective

fade

1. definite of fad
2. plural of fad

Noun

fade n

1. indefinite plural of fad

Finnish

Etymology

< Swedish fader (“father”)

Noun

fade

1. (slang) father

Declension

Synonyms

• isä (standard)

French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *fatidus, blend of Latin fatuus and vapidus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fad/

Adjective

fade (plural fades)

1. tasteless, insipid
2. boring; lukewarm

Synonyms

• (lacking in interesting features): terne, insignifiant

Noun

fade m (plural fades)

1. (criminal slang) share of loot / booty

Verb

fade

1. inflection of fader:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “fade” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German

Alternative forms

• fad (particularly in southern Germany and Austria)

Etymology

From French fade, from Vulgar Latin fatidus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fa?d?/
• Homophone: Pfade (only according to a regional pronunciation of this word)
• Rhymes: -a?d?

Adjective

fade (comparative fader, superlative am fadesten or am fadsten)

1. bland, flavorless, stale, boring
   • 1922, Rudolf Steiner, Nationalökonomischer Kurs, Erster Vortrag

Declension

Further reading

• “fade” in Duden online
• “fade” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Yola

Pronoun

fade

1. Alternative form of faade

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN, page 23

English

Etymology

From Middle English derkenen, dirkenen, from Old English *deorcnian, *diercnian (“to darken”), from Proto-West Germanic *dirkin?n (“to darken”), equivalent to dark +? -en.

Cognate with Scots derken, durken (“to darken”), Old High German tarchanjan, terchinen (“to darken”), Middle High German terken, derken (“to darken”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?d??k?n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?d??k?n/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k?n

Verb

darken (third-person singular simple present darkens, present participle darkening, simple past and past participle darkened)

1. (transitive) To make dark or darker by reducing light.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Exodus 10.15,^[1]

     […] they [locusts] covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened […]

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 6, lines 56-58,^[2]

     So spake the Sovran voice, and Clouds began

     To darken all the Hill […]

2. (intransitive) To become dark or darker (having less light).
   • 1783, William Blake, “The Couch of Death” in Richard Herne Shepherd (ed.) Poetical Sketches, London: Basil Montagu Pickering, 1868, p. 84,^[3]

     […] the owl and the bat flew round the darkening trees:

   • 1930, Zane Grey, The Shepherd of Guadeloupe, Chapter Twelve,^[4]

     […] leaning at her window she watched the end of that eventful day darken over the ranges.

3. (impersonal) To get dark (referring to the sky, either in the evening or as a result of cloud).
   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 15,^[5]

     Well, I must go in now; and you too: it darkens.

   • 1901, William Stearns Davis, A Friend of Cæsar, New York: Macmillan, Chapter 4, p. 57,^[6]

     Then they passed out from the Forum, forced their way through the crowded streets, and soon were through the Porta Ratumena, outside the walls, and struck out across the Campus Martius, upon the Via Flaminia. It was rapidly darkening.

   • 1945, Gertrude Stein, Wars I Have Seen, London: B.T. Batsford, p. 13,^[7]

     From babyhood until fourteen, to play in a garden in the evening when it is darkening is a legend.

   • 1996, Colm Tóibín, “Portrait of the Artist as a Spring Lamb” in Colm Tóibín (ed.), The Kilfenora Teaboy: A Study of Paul Durcan, Dublin: New Island Books, p. 7,^[8]

     It had been fine all morning, but it was darkening now, the weather was going to get worse.

   • 2005, David Almond, Clay, London: Hodder Literature, Chapter Ten, p. 44,^[9]

     He looked up. It was darkening here as well. Sky getting red, the edge of the quarry dark and jagged against it.

4. (transitive) To make dark or darker in colour.
   • 2009, Alice Munro, “Free Radicals” in Too Much Happiness, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, p. 118,

     She puts on lipstick and darkens her eyebrows, which are now very scanty […]

5. (intransitive) To become dark or darker in colour.
   • 1979, Mary Stewart, The Last Enchantment, New York: Fawcett Crest, Book 4, Chapter 4, p. 405,^[10]

     The lovely hair had lost its rose-gold glimmer, and had darkened to rose-brown […]

6. (transitive) To render gloomy, darker in mood.
   • c. 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, Act IV, Scene 4,^[11]

     With these forced thoughts, I prithee, darken not

     The mirth o’ the feast.

   • 1969, Chaim Potok, The Promise, New York: Fawcett Crest, 1872, Chapter Four, p. 89,^[12]

     It was a pleasure seeing you again. I’m only sorry I had to darken the pleasure with my private problems.

7. (intransitive) To become gloomy, darker in mood.
   • 1797, Ann Radcliffe, The Italian, London: T. Cadell Jun[ior] and W. Davies, Volume 2, Chapter 9, p. 303,^[13]

     His countenance darkened while he spoke […]

   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, Toronto: Irwin Publishing, 1986, “Mrs. Crane,” p. 42,^[14]

     Alice’s big eyes darkened with trouble.

8. (transitive) To blind, impair the eyesight.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Romans 9.10,^[15]

     Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see […]

   • 1773, Samuel Johnson, letter to James Boswell dated 5 July, 1773, in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, Volume I, London: Charles Dilly, p. 424,^[16]

     When your letter came to me, I was so darkened by an inflammation in my eye, that I could not for some time read it.

9. (intransitive) To be blinded, lose one’s eyesight.
10. (transitive) To cloud, obscure, or perplex; to render less clear or intelligible.
    • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Job 38.2,^[17]

      Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?

    • 1629, Francis Bacon, The historie of the reigne of King Henry the Seuenth, London: I. Haviland and R. Young, ^[18]

      […] such was his wisdome, as his Confidence did seldome darken his Fore-sight […]

    • 1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 121, 14 May, 1751, Volume 4, London: J. Payne & J. Bouquet, p. 193,^[19]

      His [Edmund Spenser’s] stile was in his own time allowed to be vicious, so darkened with old words and peculiarities of phrase, and so remote from common use, that Johnson boldly pronounces him to have written no language.

11. (transitive) To make foul; to sully; to tarnish.
    • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 4,^[20]

      I must not think there are

      Evils enow to darken all his goodness:

Conjugation

Synonyms

• blacken

Derived terms

• bedarken
• darkener
• darken someone's door

Related terms

• dark

Translations

Anagrams

• Kendra, danker, de-rank, derank, endark, kendra, narked, ranked