Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

fay en · ADJ · etymology 1

Pronunciation

  • (Australia) audio
  • /feɪ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English feyen, feien, from Old English fēġan (“to join, unite”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōgijan, from Proto-Germanic *fōgijaną (“to join”), from *fōgō (“joint, slot”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Akin to Saterland Frisian fougje (“to join, add”), West Frisian foegje (“to join, add”), Dutch voegen (“to add, place”), German Low German fögen (“to join, add”), German fügen (“to connect”), Old English fōn (“to catch”). More at fang.

Meanings

  1. Fitted closely together.
    • 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. US Patent Application 20070033853, 2006

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
most fay Degree=Sup lexicographic
more fay Degree=Cmp lexicographic

fay en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

  • (Australia) audio
  • /feɪ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English feyen, feien, from Old English fēġan (“to join, unite”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōgijan, from Proto-Germanic *fōgijaną (“to join”), from *fōgō (“joint, slot”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Akin to Saterland Frisian fougje (“to join, add”), West Frisian foegje (“to join, add”), Dutch voegen (“to add, place”), German Low German fögen (“to join, add”), German fügen (“to connect”), Old English fōn (“to catch”). More at fang.

Meanings

  1. (obsolete) To fit, to add.
  2. (transitive) To join (pieces of timber) tightly. The long edges of the staves of a barrel have to be fayed so that when it is assembled it will not leak.
    • 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. Model Shipbuilders, 2010
  3. (intransitive) Of pieces of timber: to lie close together.
  4. (obsolete) To fadge.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
fays Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
fayed Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
fayed Tense=Past lexicographic
faying Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Deriveds

faying surface

Synonyms

affix (to join or unite closely) · put together · attach

Translations (1)

nl voegen (to join or unite closely or tightly)

Source: en.wiktionary, “fay” (verb), dump 20260902, contributors via the page history. Text licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

fay en · ADJ · etymology 2

Pronunciation

  • (Australia) audio
  • /feɪ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English faie, fei (“a place or person possessed with magical properties”), from Middle French feie, fée (“fairy", "fae”), from Old French fae, from Medieval Latin fāda. More at fairy.

Meanings

  1. Fairy-like.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
more fay Degree=Cmp lexicographic
most fay Degree=Sup lexicographic

Relateds

fey · fae

fay en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

  • (Australia) audio
  • /feɪ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English faie, fei (“a place or person possessed with magical properties”), from Middle French feie, fée (“fairy", "fae”), from Old French fae, from Medieval Latin fāda. More at fairy.

Meanings

  1. A fairy.
    • Which is sixteen leagues long, but is so full of Fairie and strange things that few people pass there without being lost or stopt, because therewithin dwelleth a king, Oberon the Fay. 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 61:
    • that mighty Princesse did complaine / Of grieuous mischiefes, which a wicked Fay / Had wrought [...]. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
    • A Nimph is marryed to a Fay, Great preparations for the Day, All Rites of Nuptials they recite you, To the Brydall and inuite you. 1630, Michael Drayton, The Muses Elizium, Lately diſcouered, by a New Way over Parnassvs, London: Thomas Harper, page 67:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
fays Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

faydom

Synonyms

fairy

Translations (6)

ru фе́я (fairy, elf) · he פיה (fairy, elf) · lt fėja (fairy, elf) · bg фея (fairy, elf) · fr fée (fairy, elf) · hu manó (fairy, elf)

Source: en.wiktionary, “fay” (noun), dump 20260902, contributors via the page history. Text licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

fay en · NOUN · etymology 3

Pronunciation

  • (Australia) audio
  • /feɪ/

Etymology

From Middle English fei, from Old French fei

Meanings

  1. (obsolete) faith
    • "Rash man," cried she, "how dost thou dare To come disturb my waters fair! "Thou shalt unto me plight thy fay, Or seven years thou shalt waste away, Or thou shalt die ere the third day." "To thee my faith plight will I ne'er, For I am married now a year." 1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 434:
    • Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late. I'll to my rest. c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
Source: en.wiktionary, “fay” (noun), dump 20260902, contributors via the page history. Text licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

fay en · VERB · etymology 4

Pronunciation

  • (Australia) audio
  • /feɪ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English feien (“to cleanse”), from Old Norse fægja (“to cleanse, polish”), from Proto-Germanic *fēgijaną (“to decorate, make beautiful”), from Proto-Indo-European *pōḱ-, *pēḱ- (“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.

Meanings

  1. (dialectal) To cleanse; clean out.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
fays Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
faying Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
fayed Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
fayed Tense=Past lexicographic
Source: en.wiktionary, “fay” (verb), dump 20260902, contributors via the page history. Text licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

fay en · ADJ · etymology 5

Pronunciation

  • (Australia) audio
  • /feɪ/

Etymology

Abbreviation of ofay.

Meanings

  1. (US, slang) White; white-skinned.
    • 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. 1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “They Found the Body in a Ditch”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 62:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
most fay Degree=Sup lexicographic
more fay Degree=Cmp lexicographic

fay en · NOUN · etymology 5

Pronunciation

  • (Australia) audio
  • /feɪ/

Etymology

Abbreviation of ofay.

Meanings

  1. (US, slang) A white person.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
fays Number=Plur lexicographic

Translations (2)

ja 白人 (US slang: a white person) · cmn 白人 (US slang: a white person)