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fake

adj
/feɪ̯k/

Etymology

The origin is not known with certainty, although first attested in 1775 C.E. in British criminals' slang. It is probably from feak, feague (“to give a better appearance through artificial means, spruce up, embellish”), itself from German Low German fegen, from Middle Low German vēgen, from Old Saxon fegōn, from Proto-West Germanic *fegōn (“to clean up, polish”). Akin to Dutch veeg (“a swipe”), Dutch vegen (“to sweep, wipe”); German fegen (“to sweep, to polish”). Compare also Old English fācn (“deceit, fraud”). Perhaps related also to Old Norse fjúka (“to fade, vanquish, disappear”), Old Norse feikn (“strange, scary, unnatural”).

  1. derived from *fegōn✻ — “to clean up, polish”
  2. derived from fegōn
  3. derived from vēgen
  4. derived from fegen

Definitions

  1. Not real

    Not real; false, fraudulent.

    • Which fur coat looks fake?

  2. Insincere

  3. Something which is not genuine, or is presented fraudulently.

    • I suspect this passport is a fake.
  4. ›+ 9 more definitions

    1. A move meant to deceive an opposing player, used for gaining advantage for example when…

      A move meant to deceive an opposing player, used for gaining advantage for example when dribbling an opponent.

    2. A trick

      A trick; a swindle

    3. To make a counterfeit, to counterfeit, to forge, to falsify.

    4. To make a false display of, to affect, to feign, to simulate.

      • to fake a marriage
      • to fake happiness
      • to fake a smile

    5. To cheat

      To cheat; to swindle; to steal; to rob.

    6. To modify fraudulently, so as to make an object appear better or other than it really is

      • He had a hundred similar tricks, but I never knew him fake a horse, or sell one as sound if it was not.

    7. To improvise, in jazz.

      • Occasionally the opportunity arises to stand up and "fake" a jazz standard.
      • In the face of this print music culture, 'faking' was the ability—at once respected and disrespected—to improvise a song (or a part in an arrangement) without reading the notation.

    8. One of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies in a coil

      One of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies in a coil; a single turn or coil.

    9. To coil (a rope, line, or hawser), by winding alternately in opposite directions, in…

      To coil (a rope, line, or hawser), by winding alternately in opposite directions, in layers usually of zigzag or figure of eight form, to prevent twisting when running out.

The neighborhood

Derived

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Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at fake. 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.

01fake02insincere03artificial04imposed05impose06verb07word08fact09real

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

9 hops · closes at fake

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