different between velvety vs feal

English

Etymology

From velvet +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v?lv?ti/

Adjective

velvety (comparative more velvety, superlative most velvety)

1. (also figuratively) Like velvet; soft, smooth, soothing.
   • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian, Collins, 1998, Chapter 11,

     As he came down the huge velvety paws caught him as gently as a mother’s arms and set him (right way up, too) on the ground.

   • 1964, Elie Wiesel, The Town Beyond the Wall (1962), translated by Stephen Becker, New York: Atheneum, 1964, p. 104,

     Tangier was washed in a velvety bluish twilight.

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi?l/
• Rhymes: -i?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English fele, fæle (“proper, of the right sort”), from Old English f?le (“faithful, trusty, good; dear, beloved”), from Proto-Germanic *failijaz (“true, friendly, familiar, good”), from Proto-Indo-European *pey- (“to adore”). Cognate with Scots feel, feelie (“cosy, neat, clean, comfortable”), West Frisian feilich (“safe”), Dutch veil (“for-sale”), Dutch veilig (“safe”), German feil (“for-sale”), Latin p?us (“good, dutiful, faithful, devout, pious”).

Alternative forms

• feil, feel, feele, fiel

Adjective

feal (comparative fealer or more feal, superlative fealest or most feal)

1. (Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) (of things) Cosy; clean; neat.
2. (Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) (of persons) Comfortable; cosy; safe.
   • 1822, Allan Cunningham, "Death of the Laird Of Warlsworm", in Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, v. 2, p. 330:

     […] when I care na to accompany ye to the kirkyard hole mysel, and take my word for't, ye'Il lie saftest and fealest on the Buittle side of the kirk; […]

3. (Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Smooth; soft; downy; velvety.

Derived terms

• fealy, feely

Adverb

feal (comparative fealer or more feal, superlative fealest or most feal)

1. In a feal manner.

Etymology 2

From Middle English felen, from Old Norse fela (“to hide”), from Proto-Germanic *felhan? (“to conceal, hide, bury, trust, intrude”), from Proto-Indo-European *pele(w)-, *pl?(w)- (“to hide”). Cognate with Old High German felahan (“to pass, trust, sow”), Old English f?olan (“to cleave, enter, penetrate”).

Verb

feal (third-person singular simple present feals, present participle fealing, simple past and past participle fealed)

1. (transitive, dialectal) To hide.

Etymology 3

From Middle English felen (“to come at (one's enemies), advance”), from Old English f?olan (“to cleave, enter, penetrate”), from Proto-Germanic *felhan?.

Verb

feal (third-person singular simple present feals, present participle fealing, simple past fale or fealed, past participle folen or fealed)

1. (obsolete) To press on, advance.
   • 1338, Robert Mannyng, Mannyng's Chronicle

     Durst none of them further feal.

References

• The Middle English Dictionary

Etymology 4

Inherited from an unattested Middle English word, borrowed from Old French feal, collateral form of feeil, from Latin fidelis.

Adjective

feal (comparative fealer or more feal, superlative fealest or most feal)

1. (archaic) faithful, loyal

Derived terms

• fealty

Etymology 5

Unknown; see fail.

Noun

feal (plural feals)

1. Alternative form of fail (“piece of turf cut from grassland”)

Anagrams

• Lafe, Leaf, alef, flea, leaf

Galician

Alternative forms

• fial

Etymology

From feo (“hay”) +? -al, suffix which forms place names. From Latin f?num (“hay”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fe?al/

Noun

feal m (plural feais)

1. hayfield

References

• “feal” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “feal” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “feal” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.