different between legal vs fair

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin l?g?lis (“legal”), from l?x (“law”). Doublet of loyal and leal.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?li?.??l/
• Rhymes: -i???l
• (US) IPA^(key): /?li??l/

Adjective

legal (comparative more legal, superlative most legal)

1. Relating to the law or to lawyers.

2. Having its basis in the law.

3. Being allowed or prescribed by law.

4. (informal) Above the age of consent or the legal drinking age.
5. (US, Canada) (of paper or document layouts) Measuring 8½ in × 14 in (215.9 mm × 355.6 mm) (also legal-size).

Antonyms

• (allowed): banned, contraband, disallowed, forbidden, illegal, outlawed, unlawful
• (concerning law): black-market, back-alley
• (over age of consent): underage

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

legal (countable and uncountable, plural legals)

1. (uncountable, informal) The legal department of a company.

   Legal wants this in writing.

2. (uncountable, US, Canada) Paper in sheets 8½ in × 14 in (215.9 mm × 355.6 mm).
3. (countable) A spy who is attached to, and ostensibly employed by, an embassy, military outpost, etc.
4. (countable, informal, US) Somebody who immigrated lawfully.

   Antonyms: illegal, undocumented

Derived terms

• legal-size

Anagrams

• Galle, egall

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin l?g?lis. Compare the inherited doublet lleial.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /l???al/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /le??al/

Adjective

legal (masculine and feminine plural legals)

1. legal

   Antonym: il·legal

Derived terms

• legalitzar
• legalment

Related terms

• legalitat
• llei
• lleial

Further reading

• “legal” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “legal” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “legal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “legal” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin l?g?lis (“legal”), from l?x (“law”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /le?a?l/, [le???æ??l]

Adjective

legal

1. legal (something that conforms to or is according to law)
2. legitimate (conforming to accepted rules)

Inflection

Synonyms

• (legal): lovlig
• (legitimate): legitim

Antonyms

• (legal): illegal

Galician

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin l?g?lis. Compare leal.

Adjective

legal m or f (plural legais)

1. legal (having its basis in the law)

Antonyms

• ilegal

Derived terms

• legalmente

See also

• lícito

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin l?g?lis (“legal”), from l?x (“law”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [le???a?l]
• Rhymes: -a?l

Adjective

legal (not comparable)

1. legal

Declension

Antonyms

• illegal

Further reading

• “legal” in Duden online

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch legaal (“legal”), from French légal, from Latin l?g?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?l??al]
• Hyphenation: lè?gal

Adjective

legal

1. legal, allowed or prescribed by law.

Derived terms

Further reading

• “legal” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin l?g?lis (“legal”), from l?x (“law”). Compare leal, an inherited doublet.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /l?.??a?/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /le.??aw/

Adjective

legal m or f (plural legais, comparable)

1. legal
2. (Brazil, familiar) cool, nice, good

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:legal.

Synonyms

• (legal): lícito
• (Portugal, cool): fixe

Antonyms

• (legal): ilegal
• (cool): chato

Derived terms

• legalmente

Related terms

• ilegal
• legalidade

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French légal, Latin legalis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /le??al/

Adjective

legal m or n (feminine singular legal?, masculine plural legali, feminine and neuter plural legale)

1. legal, lawful

Declension

Synonyms

• licit

Antonyms

• ilegal
• ilicit

Related terms

• legalitate
• lege
• legitim

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin l?g?lis, from l?x (“law”). Compare leal, an inherited doublet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /le??al/, [le???al]

Adjective

legal (plural legales)

1. legal, statutory

   Antonym: ilegal

2. lawful
3. (colloquial) legit

Derived terms

• alegal
• legalmente

Related terms

• ilegal
• legalidad
• ley

Further reading

• “legal” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin legalis.

Adjective

legal (not comparable)

1. legal

Declension

Related terms

• illegal
• legalitet
• legitim

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f??/, /f??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /f???/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /fe?(?)/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /f??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Homophone: fare

Etymology 1

From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæ?er (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh??- (“to fasten, place”).

Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”). See also peace.

Adjective

fair (comparative fairer, superlative fairest)

1. (archaic or literary) Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.
   • 1460-1500, The Towneley Plays?

     He is so fair, without lease, he seems full well to sit on this.
2. Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.
   • 1605, The Booke of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, London: Robert Barker, “The order for the administration of the Lords Supper, or holy Communion,”^[1]

     The Table hauing at the Communion time a faire white linnen cloth vpon it, shall stand in the body of the Church, or in the Chancell, where Morning prayer and Euening prayer be appointed to be said.

   • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, London, Observation 21, “Of Moss, and several other small vegetative Substances,” p. 135,^[2]

     […] I have observ’d, that putting fair Water (whether Rain-water or Pump-water, or May-dew, or Snow-water, it was almost all one) I have often observ’d, I say, that this Water would, with a little standing, tarnish and cover all about the sides of the Glass that lay under water, with a lovely green […]

3. Light in color, pale, particularly with regard to skin tone but also referring to blond hair.
   • 1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, page 200

     the northern people large and fair-complexioned

   • This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair, and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder.

4. Just, equitable.

   • “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons?! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

6. Adequate, reasonable, or decent.

   Their performance has been only fair.
7. (nautical, of a wind) Favorable to a ship's course.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 563:

     I shipped with them and becoming friends, we set forth on our venture, in health and safety; and sailed with a fair wind, till we came to a city called Madínat-al-Sín; […]

8. Not overcast; cloudless; clear; pleasant; propitious; said of the sky, weather, or wind, etc.
   • 1909, Frank R. Stockton, The adventures of Captain Horn Chapter 42

     They had good weather and tolerably fair winds, and before they entered the Straits of Magellan the captain had formulated a plan for the disposition of Garta.

9. Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed; unencumbered; open; direct; said of a road, passage, etc.
   • c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War

     The caliphs obtained a mighty empire, which was in a fair way to have enlarged.

10. (shipbuilding) Without sudden change of direction or curvature; smooth; flowing; said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces, water lines, and other lines.
11. (baseball) Between the baselines.
12. (rugby, of a catch) Taken direct from an opponent's foot, without the ball touching the ground or another player.
13. (cricket, of a ball delivered by the bowler) Not a no-ball.
14. (statistics) Of a coin or die, having equal chance of landing on any side, unbiased.

Synonyms

• (beautiful): beautiful, pretty, lovely
• (unblemished): pure, clean, neat
• (light in color): pale
• (just): honest, just, equitable

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

fair (plural fair)

1. Something which is fair (in various senses of the adjective).

   When will we learn to distinguish between the fair and the foul?

2. (obsolete) A woman, a member of the ‘fair sex’; also as a collective singular, women.
   • 1744, Georg Friedrich Händel, Hercules, act 2, scene 8

     Love and Hymen, hand in hand, / Come, restore the nuptial band! / And sincere delights prepare / To crown the hero and the fair.

   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, III.24:

     If single, probably his plighted Fair / Has in his absence wedded some rich miser  […].

3. (obsolete) Fairness, beauty.
4. A fair woman; a sweetheart.
   • 1743, William Shenstone, A Pastoral Ballad

     I have found out a gift for my fair.

5. (obsolete) Good fortune; good luck.
   • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act V scene ii^[3]:

     Now, fair befall thee, good Petruchio!

Verb

fair (third-person singular simple present fairs, present participle fairing, simple past and past participle faired)

2. (transitive) To smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).
3. (transitive) To bring into perfect alignment (especially about rivet holes when connecting structural members).
4. (transitive, art) To make an animation smooth, removing any jerkiness.
   • 1996, Computer Animation '96: June 3-4, 1996, Geneva, Switzerland (page 136)

     Since the sequence of data contain sampling noises, the captured motion is not smooth and wiggles along the moving path. There are well-known fairing algorithms in Euclidean space based on difference geometry.

5. (transitive) To construct or design with the aim of producing a smooth outline or reducing air drag or water resistance.
   • 1920, Technical Report of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (page 206)

     Two forward cars were provided with the model. One of these (shown detached in Fig. 1) was faired at its after end, with a view to possible reduction of head resistance, and to induce a better flow of air to the propeller.

6. (transitive, obsolete) To make fair or beautiful.

Synonyms

• (to reduce air drag or water resistance): to streamline

Derived terms

• fair off
• fair up
• fairing

Translations

Adverb

fair (comparative more fair or fairer, superlative most fair or fairest)

1. clearly, openly, frankly, civilly, honestly, favorably, auspiciously, agreeably

Derived terms

• bid fair
• fair and square

Etymology 2

From Middle English feyre, from Old French foire, from Latin f?riae.

Noun

fair (plural fairs)

1. A community gathering to celebrate and exhibit local achievements.
2. An event for public entertainment and trade, a market.
3. An event for professionals in a trade to learn of new products and do business, a trade fair.
4. A travelling amusement park (called a funfair in British English and a (travelling) carnival in US English).

Derived terms

• fairgrounds
• funfair

Translations

References

• fair at OneLook Dictionary Search
• fair in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• fair in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• RIFA, fiar, rifa-

German

Etymology

From English fair, from Old English fæ?er, from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz, whence also Middle High German vager (“splendid, wonderful”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??r/, [f????], [fe???], [f???]
• Hyphenation: fair

Adjective

fair (comparative fairer, superlative am fairsten)

1. (especially sports) fair (just, honest, equitable, adequate)

Declension

Synonyms

• anständig
• ehrlich
• gerecht
• gleich
• ausgeglichen
• angemessen
• sauber

Antonyms

• unfair

Derived terms

• Fairness (rarely Fairheit)
• Fairplay
• Fair-Use-Doktrin

Further reading

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

Hungarian

Etymology

From English fair.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?f?r], [?f??r]
• Hyphenation: fair
• Rhymes: -?r

Adjective

fair (comparative fairebb, superlative legfairebb)

1. fair (just, equitable)

   Synonyms: méltányos, tisztességes, becsületes, igazságos, korrekt, sportszer?

Declension

Derived terms

• fair play
• fairül

Further reading

• fair in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN

Irish

Etymology

See aire (“watching, attention”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [f?a??]

Verb

fair (present analytic faireann, future analytic fairfidh, verbal noun faire, past participle fairthe)

1. to watch

Conjugation

Mutation

References

• MacBain, Alexander; Mackay, Eneas (1911) , “fair”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Stirling, ?ISBN, page 160

Polish

Etymology

From English fair.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?r/

Adjective

fair (not comparable)

1. fair (just, equitable)

   Synonym: uczciwy

Declension

Indeclinable.

Adverb

fair (not comparable)

1. fairly (in a fair manner)

   Synonym: uczciwie

Related terms

• (noun) fair play

Further reading

• fair in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• fair in Polish dictionaries at PWN