Flummoxed - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Lalaith · 05-12-2003, 02:44 PM

Fey isn't in dictionaries? Really? What is the world coming to...
Fey comes from the Germanic/scandinavian feigur, doomed to die. But some people also relate it to the French word for fairy, fee. As Tolkien used it means to have the air of someone about to die. But people these days use it more to mean skittish, vague, otherworldly, as in, like one of the fairy folk.
One of my brothers learnt his English chiefly from Tolkien, and as a result sounded rather eccentric to native speakers, particularly when he was a teenager. I'll never forget the face of the Cockney London sports shop assistant when my brother, aged about 14, asked him with a heavy accent "can you take this bow asunder?"

[ May 12, 2003: Message edited by: Lalaith ]

05-12-2003, 02:44 PM	#19
Lalaith Blithe Spirit Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 2,779	Fey isn't in dictionaries? Really? What is the world coming to... Fey comes from the Germanic/scandinavian feigur, doomed to die. But some people also relate it to the French word for fairy, fee. As Tolkien used it means to have the air of someone about to die. But people these days use it more to mean skittish, vague, otherworldly, as in, like one of the fairy folk. One of my brothers learnt his English chiefly from Tolkien, and as a result sounded rather eccentric to native speakers, particularly when he was a teenager. I'll never forget the face of the Cockney London sports shop assistant when my brother, aged about 14, asked him with a heavy accent "can you take this bow asunder?" [ May 12, 2003: Message edited by: Lalaith ] __________________ Out went the candle, and we were left darkling