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fairy

noun
/ˈfɛəɹi/UK/ˈfeːɹiː/

Etymology

From Middle English faierie, fairie, from Old French faerie, from fae + -erie, from Latin fāta (“goddess of fate”). 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.

  1. derived from fāta
  2. derived from faerie
  3. inherited from faierie

Definitions

  1. The realm of faerie

    The realm of faerie; enchantment, illusion.

    • These he knew by their fiery eyes, and knew that he was at last in the land of Fairy.

  2. A mythical being of human form with magical powers, known in many sizes and descriptions,…

    A mythical being of human form with magical powers, known in many sizes and descriptions, although often depicted in modern illustrations only as a small sprite with gauze-like wings, especially one that is female. Fairies are revered in some modern forms of paganism.

    • "They used to say there were fairies in that hill, I must tell you!"

  3. An enchantress, or creature of overpowering charm.

  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. An attractive young woman.

      • "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."
      • As she took out her key she was quite unaware that three pairs of eyes were watching her with interest from across the street. [...] ‘Strewth–’e ain’t ‘arf got a fairy this time,’ remarked the husky Mr. Clegg.

    2. A male homosexual, especially one who is effeminate.

    3. An effeminate man or boy.

      • 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.

    4. A member of two species of hummingbird in the genus Heliothryx.

    5. A legendary Chinese immortal.

    6. Like a fairy

      Like a fairy; fanciful, whimsical, delicate.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at fairy. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01fairy02descriptions03description04delineation05image06idol07spiritual08spirit

A definitional loop anchored at fairy. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at fairy

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA