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Fairy - Etymology

Fairy - Etymology: Encyclopedia II - Fairy - Etymology

The words fae and faerie came to English from French and, ultimately, Latin. An interesting correlation is the word "fey," which may be derived ultimately from the same Latin root and is now returning to mean the same as "fae." The Latin root fata, meaning fate in the sense of one of the Parcae, is an indication that fays have abilities associated with knowledge (foresight) and manipulation (luck, blessing, cursing) of fate, both of whic ...

Fairy: Encyclopedia II - Fairy - Etymology

Fairy - Etymology

The words fae and faerie came to English from French and, ultimately, Latin. An interesting correlation is the word "fey," which may be derived ultimately from the same Latin root and is now returning to mean the same as "fae."

The Latin root fata, meaning fate in the sense of one of the Parcae, is an indication that fays have abilities associated with knowledge (foresight) and manipulation (luck, blessing, cursing) of fate, both of which are qualities of faeries in myth.

Fata influenced modern Italian's fada and Spanish's hada, both of which mean fairy, and the Old French fée, which gained the meaning "enchanter." By adding the ending -rie, we get féerie, meaning a "state of fée" or "enchantment." This also befits the fae, who are known for casting illusions and altering emotions, particularly so as to make themselves alluring, frightening, or unseen.

Modern English inherited the two terms "fae" and "fairy," along with all the associations attached to them. Since the subjects of the words are somewhat alien and ethereal, the terms are often used interchangeably and are more prone to spelling alterations than other words.

Another word, "fey," has historically meant "doomed to die," mostly in Scotland. However, it gained the meaning "touched by otherworldly or magical quality; clairvoyant, supernatural." In modern English, the word seems to be conjoining into "fae" as variant spelling. If "fey" derives from "fata," which seems as like as "fairy" deriving from "fata," then the word history of the two words is itself fae.1

There is, however, a slight distinction between the two words "fae" and "faerie." Properly, "fae" is a noun referring to a specific race of otherworldly beings exercising mystical abilities (either the elves [or equivalent thereof] in mythology or their insect-winged, floral descendents in English folklore), while "faerie" is an adjective meaning "of, like, or associated with fays, their otherworldly home, their activities, and their produced goods and effects." Thus, a leprechaun and a ring of mushrooms are both faerie things (a fairy leprechaun and a fairy ring.)