different between fay vs fady

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: f?, IPA^(key): /fe?/
• Homophone: fey
• Rhymes: -e?

Etymology 1

From Middle English feyen, feien, from Old English f??an (“to join, unite”), from Proto-Germanic *f?gijan? (“to join”), from *f?g? (“joint, slot”), from Proto-Indo-European *pa?- (“to fasten, place”). Akin to Old Frisian f?gia (“to join”), Old Saxon f?gian (“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 f?n (“to catch”). More at fang.

Verb

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

1. To fit.
2. To join or unite closely or tightly.
   • 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. To lie close together.
4. 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 2

From Middle English fegien, fæien (“to cleanse”), from Old Norse fægja (“to cleanse, polish”), from Proto-Germanic *f?gijan? (“to decorate, make beautiful”), from Proto-Indo-European *p??-, *p??- (“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 3

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

Noun

fay (plural fays)

1. A fairy.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.ii:

     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 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, Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues, Payback Press 1999, p. 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 f?g.

Noun

fay

1. Alternative form of fou

Etymology 2

From Old English f??e.

Adjective

fay

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

English

Etymology 1

fade +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fe?di/

Adjective

fady (comparative more fady, superlative most fady)

1. (archaic, rare) faded
   • 1764, William Shenstone, Unconnected Thoughts on Gardening (1764)

     A straight-lined avenue, that is widened in front, and planted there with yew trees, then firs, then with trees more and more fady, till they end in the almond-willow, or silver osier, will produce a very remarkable deception of the former kind […]

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Malagasy fady.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f??di/

Noun

fady (uncountable)

1. A system of taboos in the traditional culture of Madagascar.

Adjective

fady (not comparable)

1. Taboo, or forbidden, under the fady system.

Malagasy

Noun

fady

1. taboo, fady

Descendants

• ? English: fady