different between zeal vs feal

English

Etymology

From Middle English zele, from Old French zel, from Late Latin z?lus, from Ancient Greek ????? (zêlos, “zeal, jealousy”), from Proto-Indo-European *yeh?- (“to search”). Related to jealous.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /zi?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /zil/
• Rhymes: -i?l

Noun

zeal (countable and uncountable, plural zeals)

1. The fervour or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.

   Synonyms: ardour, eagerness, enthusiasm, intensity, passion

   Antonym: apathy

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Romans 10.2,^[1]

     […] I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

   • 1687, John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, London: Jacob Tonson, Part 3, p. 96,^[2]

     Zeal, the blind conductor of the will

   • 1779, David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Part 12, pp. 143-144,^[3]

     […] the highest zeal in religion and the deepest hypocrisy, so far from being inconsistent, are often or commonly united in the same individual character.

   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, London: John Murray, Volume 1, Chapter 14, p. 250,^[4]

     [He] would begin admiring her drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge as seemed terribly like a would-be lover,

   • 1962, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 15, p. 248,^[5]

     The stockman’s zeal for eliminating the coyote has resulted in plagues of field mice, which the coyote formerly controlled.

2. (obsolete) A person who exhibits such fervour or tireless devotion.

   Synonym: zealot

   • 1614, Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, London: Robert Allot, Act V, Scene 5, p. 85,^[6]

     […] like a malicious purblinde zeale as thou art!

   • 1642, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, London: Andrew Crooke, p. 5,^[7]

     […] there are questionlesse both in Greeke, Roman and Africa Churches, solemnities, and ceremonies, whereof the wiser zeales doe make a Christian use, and stand condemned by us;

3. The collective noun for a group of zebras.

   Synonyms: dazzle, herd

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Elza, laze, zale

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.