English

Alternative forms

• fay

Adjective

fey ‎(comparative more fey, superlative most fey)

1. (dialectal or archaic) About to die; doomed; on the verge of sudden or violent death.
   • 1977, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion:

     Then Fëanor laughed as one fey, and he cried: “None and none! What I have left behind I count now no loss; needless baggage on the road it has proved. Let those that cursed my name, curse me still, and whine their way back to the cages of the Valar! Let the ships burn!”

   • 1922, E. R. Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros:

     Surely the Gods have made him fey, having ordained his destruction and our humbling before these Demons.

2. (obsolete) Dying; dead.
3. (chiefly Scotland) possessing second sight, clairvoyance, or clairaudience
4. overrefined, affected
   • 2006 January 1, Jennifer Drapkin, “Wrestling with Fame”, in Psychology Today, volume 39, number 1, page 50:

     Hoffman does not rely on his talent to carry him through a role. He spent five and a half months transmuting himself into Capote. … He lost 40 pounds and practiced the inscrutable voice and fey mannerisms for an hour or two every day.

   • 2009, Robert Cohen, Amateur Barbarians, Simon and Schuster, ISBN 9780743230360, page 16:

     He'd stand at the board making jokes the kids didn't understand, improvising fey little couplets of dactylic verse.

   • 2009 Oct/Nov, Lucius Shepard, “Halloween Town”, in Fantasy and Science Fiction, volume 117, number 3/4, page 129:

     … he did not tell Mary Alonso, who had taken Dell's place as a source of gossip and information, and with whom he went out for drinks on occasion, usually along with Mary's partner, Roberta, a fey, freckly, dark-haired girl, …

   • 2011, Héctor Tobar, The Barbarian Nurseries, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, ISBN 9780374708931:

     Guadalupe was a fey mexicana with long braids and a taste for embroidered Oaxacan blouses and overwrought indigenous jewelry, and also a former university student like Araceli.

   • 2012 Apr, “Field Guide: The Club Rules”, in Town and Country:

     Bespoke designer Kirk Miller, who offers a contemporary version at his Soho atelier, says, "A club collar shows that a man pays attention to detail. It's a simple way to communicate elegance." And please don't call it a Peter Pan, the club's fey sister.

   • 2012, Jeffery Goldberg, “What's Your Problem”, in The Atlantic Montly, retrieved 2012-09-17:

     Most Ivy League graduates are unaccustomed to pepper spray; perhaps he should spray himself in the face once or twice, to test his tolerance. He should also resist the urge to bring high-end camping equipment to protests—this will make him look fey and elitist.

5. Strange or otherworldly.
6. Spellbound.

Derived terms

• faydom

Translations

Etymology 2

Middle English faie, fei ‎(“a place or person possessed with magical properties”), from Middle French feie, fee ‎(“fairy", "fae”). More at fairy.

Adjective

fey ‎(comparative more fey, superlative most fey)

1. Magical or fairylike.

Translations

Noun

fey ‎(uncountable)

1. Fairy folk collectively.

Synonyms

• See fairy

See also

• fay
• fae

Mapudungun

Pronoun

fey ‎(using Raguileo Alphabet)

1. Third-person singular personal pronoun. he, she, it.

See also

Scots

Noun

fey ‎(plural feys)

1. a premonition of death

Adjective

fey

1. possessing second sight, premonitory

Volapük

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fej/

Noun

fey ‎(plural feys)

1. fairy

Declension