fairy
/ˈfeːɹi/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.08 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "But for a dreſſing for her head I thinke for her I haue a Tyer, That all Fayryes ſhall admyre."
- ""They used to say there were fairies in that hill, I must tell you!""
- "The cripple returned the smile and stuck out his hand. Miss Lonelyhearts clasped it, and they stood this way, smiling and holding hands, until Mrs. Doyle reëntered the room. "What a sweet pair of fairies you guys are," she said. The cripple pulled his hand away and made as though to strike his wife."
- "We saw a horrible sight in the bar: a white hipster fairy had come in wearing a Hawaiian shirt and was asking the big drummer if he could sit in."
- "Wimpy names—e.g., Cecil, Clarence, and Wendell—also seem to carry homosexual overtones, because we all know that fairies are meek and wimpy, just as we know that all wimps are ‘fags’ in one sense or the other."
- ""When are we going to see this fairy?" demanded Algy. "You, personally, never. You're far too immoral. I might let the others look at her from a distance in a year or two.""
Etymology
From Middle English faierie, fairie, from Old French faerie, from fae (from Latin fāta (“goddess of fate”)) + -erie. Equivalent to fay + -ry. Attested in English from about 1330, in King Alisaunder, first in the sense of "enchantment, illusion, dream" ("that thou herdest is fairye") and shortly thereafter "realm of the fays, fairy-land" and "the inhabitants of fairyland, collectively". The re-interpretation of the term as a countable noun denoting individual inhabitants of fairy-land can be traced to the 1390s, but became common only in the 16th century, perhaps due to reinterpreting phrases like faerie knight.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfeːɹi/
- British English: /ˈfɛəɹi/
Usage
Inflected Forms
fairies (plural)
faery (alternative)
faëry (alternative)
faerie (alternative)
faërie (alternative)
færie (alternative, archaic)
fairie (alternative)
fayry (alternative, obsolete)
more fairy (comparative)
most fairy (superlative)