different between pixie vs fay

English

Etymology

Uncertain; see Wikipedia.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?p?ksi/
• Rhymes: -?ksi
• Hyphenation: pix?ie

Noun

pixie (plural pixies)

1. (mythology, fantasy literature, fairy tales) A playful sprite or elflike or fairy-like creature.

   Synonyms: brownie, fair, gnome, imp, sprite

   • 2005, Dan Keding, The Pixies’ Bed, Dan Keding, Amy Douglas (editors), English Folktales, page 98,

     Then she saw pixies — dozens and dozens of pixies — dancing and singing.

   • 2005, Kathryn Reyes, Mystery Door Manor and the Dragon Realm, page 72,

     When she looked around, Mary saw four pixies flying toward her. She had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit. Then the pixies turned around and attacked again.

   • 2007, Jeremy Phillips, The Wizardon Star, page 165,

     The servant that had raised him, an elderly pixie called Rolog, had died. On his deathbed he had called the young Captain to his side. Seeing the pixie dying had had no effect on him.

   • 2010, Sandra A. Filbin, The Enchanted World: A Tooth Fairy's Tale, page 49,

     Tiffy froze as the two pixies looked directly into each other's eyes.

     Then Tiffy raised her hand and said, “Hi, I'm Tiffy the Tooth Fairy.” Even though the other pixie lifted her hand too, she didn't answer.

2. (slang) A cute, petite woman with short hair.
   • 2006, Darnell Arnoult, Sufficient Grace, page 186,

     Then a pixie appears in the visitor window, round face, big brown eyes framed in thick liner, a tiny turned-up nose, red lips, inch-long blue-black hair so popular with the avant-garde.

   • 2009, Nicole Baart, The Moment Between, page 1,

     Petite and narrow-waisted, with a pixie flip of hair the exact color of coffee beans, Abigail could easily pass for sixteen in a pair of ripped jeans and an Abercrombie T-shirt.

   • 2010, Mary Jo Ignoffo, Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune, page 196,

     Petite in the extreme, not even reaching five feet tall, Winchester at her most robust had approached one hundred pounds. No longer the bright-eyed, sophisticated pixie that Isaiah Taber had photographed so many years earlier, Winchester showed a different picture altogether as she lay dying, her fingers and toes knotted and knurled from years of destruction by the painful arthritis.

   • 2011, L. E. Newell, Durty South Grind, page 138,

     Like magic, Carla transformed from the dainty pixie into a hardcore, no-nonsense businesswoman right before his eyes.

3. (astronomy, meteorology) An upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a short-lasting pinpoint of light on the surface of convective domes that produces a gnome.

Alternative forms

• pigsie (obsolete, Celtic mythology)
• piskie
• pisky
• pixy

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• pixie on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dongxiang

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?i??i??/, [p?i???i??]

Etymology

From Proto-Mongolic *büse. Compare Mongolian ??? (büs)

Alternative forms

• pijie

Noun

pixie

1. belt

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”)