Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: FAIRIES |
FAIRIESPlural1. Of Fairy |
Date "FAIRIES" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Fairies good and bad. AFREET or EFREET, one of the Jinn tribe, of which there are five. (See Story of the Second Calendar.) APPARITION. A ghost. ARIEL. (See Ariel.) BANSHEE or BENSHEE, an Irish fairy attached to a house. (See Banshee.) BOGGART. (Scotch.) A local hobgoblin or spirit. BOGIE or BOGLE, a bugbear (Scotch form of bug). (See Bogie.) BROWNIE, a Scotch domestic fairy; the servants friend if well treated. (See Brownie.) BUG or BUGBEAR, any imaginary thing that frightens a person. (Welsh, bwg. (See Bug.) CAULD LAD (The), the Brownie of Hilton Hall. (See Cauld Lad.) DJINN, JIN, or GINN (Arabian).(See Jinn.) DUENDE (3 syl.), a Spanish house-spirit.(See Duende.) DWARE, a diminutive being, human or superhuman. (Anglo-Saxon, dweorg.) DWERGER, DWERGUGH, or DUERGAR, Gotho-German dwarfs, dwelling in rocks and hills. (Anglo-Saxon,dweorgh.) ELF (plu. ELVES), fairies of diminutive size, supposed to be fond of practical jokes. (Anglo-Saxon, ælf. (See Elf.) ELLE-MAID or ELLE-WOMAN, ELLE-FOLK, of Scandinavia. ESPRIT FOLLET, the house-spirit of France. FAIRY or FAERIE (plu. FAIRIES), a supernatural being, fond of pranks, but generally pleasing. (German and French, fee.) FAMILIAR (A, an evil spirit attendant on witches, etc. (See Familiar.) FATA, an Italian fay, or white lady. FATES, the three spirits (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos) which preside over the destiny of every individual. (Latin, fata.) FAY (plu. FAYS), same as Fairy (q.v..) FEAR DEARG (The), i.e. Red Man. A house-spirit of Munster. GENII (plu.). The sing. genie and genius. Eastern spirits, whether good or bad, who preside over a man or nation. "He is my evil [or good] genius." (Latin, genius. (See Genius.) GHOST, the immaterial body or noumenon of a human being. Supposed to be free to visit the earth at night-time, but obliged to return to its Hades at the first dawn. GHOUL, a demon that feeds on the dead. (Persian.) GNOME (1 syl.), the guardian of mines, quarries, etc. (Greek, gnóme a Cabalistic being.) (See Gnomes.) GOBLIN or HOBGOBLIN, a phantom spirit. (French, gobelin; German, kobold.) GOOD FOLK (The). The Brownies or house-spirits. GUARDIAN-ANGEL, an angelic spirit which presides over the destiny of each individual. HABUNDIA, queen of the White Ladies. HAG (A), a female fury. Milton (Comus 445) speaks of "blue meagre hags." H AMADRYAD, a wood-nymph. Each tree has its own wood-nymph, who dies when the tree dies. HOBGOBLIN. (See above, GOBLIN.) Hob is Robin,as Hodge is Roger. HORNS or HORNIE, the Devil. (See Hornie.) IMP, a puny demon or spirit of mischief. (Welsh, imp.) JACK-A-LANTERN, a bog or marsh spirit who delights to mislead. JINN or GINN. (See Jinn.) These Arabian spirits were formed of "smokeless fire." KELPIE (2 syl.). In Scotland, an imaginary spirit of the waters in the form of a horse. (See Kelpie.) KOBOLD, a German household goblin, also frequenting mines. (German, kobold.) (See Kobold.) LAMIA (plu. LAMIÆ), a hag or demon. Keats's Lamia is a serpent which had assumed the form of a beautiful woman, beloved by a young man, and gets a soul. (Latin, Lamia.) (See Lamies.) LAMIES, African spectres, having the head of a woman and tail of a serpent. (See Lamia.) LAR (plu. LARES) (2 syl.), Latin household deities. (See Lares.) LEPRECHAUN, a fairy shoemaker. MAB, the faries' midwife. Sometimes incorrectly called queen of the fairies. (Welsh, mab.) (See Mab.) MANDRAKE. (See Mandrake.) MERMAID, a sea-spirit, the upper part a woman and the lower half a fish. MERROWS, both male and female, are spirits of the sea, of human shape from the waist upwards, but from the waist downwards are like a fish. The females are attractive, but the males have green teeth, green hair, pig's eyes, and red noses. Fishermen dread to meet them. MONACIELLO or LITTLE MONK, a house-spirit of Naples. NAIAD (plu. NAIADES [3 syl.] or NAIADS [2 syl.]), water-nymphs. (Latin.) (See Naiads.) NIS or NISSE (2 syl.), a Kobold or Brownie. A Scandinavian fairy friendly to farmhouses. (Contraction of Nicolaus.) NIX (female, NIXIE), a water-spirit. The nix has green teeth, and wears a green hat; the nixie is very beautiful. OBERON, king of the fairies. OGRE [pronounce og'r], an inhabitant of fairyland said to feed on infant children. (French.) OREADS, mountain nymphs. (Greek, oros.) OUPHE (2 syl.), a fairy or goblin. PERI, a Persian fairy. Evil peris are called "Deevs." PIGWIDGEON, a fairy of very diminutive size. PIXY or PIXIE (also pisgy, pisgie), a Devonshire fairy, same as Puck. POUKE (1 syl.), same as Puck. (See Pouke.) PUCK, a merry little fairy spirit, full of fun and harmless mischief. (Icelandic and Swedish, puke.) (See Puck.) ROBIN- GOODFELLOW, another name for PUCK. (See Robin ...) SALAMANDER, a spirit which lives in fire. (Latin and Greek, salamandra.) (See Salamandra.) SHADES, ghosts. SPECTRE, a ghost, SPOOK (in Theosophy), an elemental. SPRITE, a spirit. STROMKARL, a Norwegian musical spirit, like Neck. (See Stromkarl.) SYLPH, a spirit of the air; so named by the Rosicrucians and Cabalists. (Greek, silphe, French, sylphide.) (See Sylphs.) TRITON, a sea deity, who dwells with Father Neptune in a golden palace at the bottom of the sea. The chief employment of tritons is to blow a conch to smooth the sea when it is ruffled. TROLL, a hill-spirit. Hence Trolls are called Hill-people or Hill-folk, supposed to be immensely rich, and especially dislike noise. (See Trolls.) UNDINE (2 syl.), a water-nymph. (Latin, unda.) (See Undine.) URCHIN properly means a hedgehog, and is applied to mischievous children and small folk generally. (See Urchin.) VAMPIRE (2 syl.), the spirit of a dead man that haunts a house and sucks the blood of the living. A Hungarian superstition. (See Vampire.) WERE-WOLF (Anglo-Saxon, wer-wulf, man-wolf), a human being, sometimes in one form and sometimes in another. (See WereWolf.) WHITE LADIES OF NORMANDY. (See White Ladies.) WHITE LADY (The) of the royal family of Prussia. A "spirit" said to appear before the death of one of the family. (See White Lady.) WHITE LADY OF AVENEL (2 syl.), a tutelary spirit. WHITE LADY OF IRELAND (The, the banshee or domestic spirit of a family.) WHITE MERLE (The), of the old Basques. A white fairy bird, which, by its singing, restored sight to the blind.) WIGHT, any human creature, as a "Highland wight." Dwarfs and all other fairy creatures. WILL-O'-THE-WISP, a spirit of the bogs, whose delight is to mislead belated travellers. WRAITH (Scotch), the ghost of a person shortly about to die or just dead, which appears to survivors, sometimes at a great distance off. (See Wraith, Household Spirits.) Fairies are the dispossessed spirits which once inhabited human bodies, but are not yet meet to dwell with the "saints in light." "All those airy shapes you now behold Were human bodies once, and clothed with earthly mould; Our souls, not yet prepared for upper light, Till doomsday wander in the shades of night." Dryden: The Flower and the Leaf. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A fairy, or faery, is a whimsical creature from stories and mythology, often portrayed in art and literature as a minuscule humanoid being with wings. This word is derived from the name of a place where they were said to live: Faerie, and fairies are sometimes called fairy-folk. The myth appears commonplace across many diverse cultures and traditions. They have many names and many forms.The Celtic peoples have many references to fairies in their myths and legends, and their nature is described in widely different ways. They are also known as 'the little folk', but this can also refer to leprechauns, goblins, menehune, and other mythical creatures. (full apologies to believers). In Ireland, the fairies were known as the Sidhe, and in Scotland, the Daoine Sith, or a great many variant names.
The height of fairies was not always as consistent as is held to be the case today. Traditionally, faeries were often of human height or taller. One consistent belief amongst the Britons was that the fairy people were weak against cold iron, leading to many of the iron related superstitions that have existed, some of which survive to this day. (For instance, the tradition of placing a horse shoe on one's door.) This belief has prompted some historians and mythological commentators to speculate that the fairies are actually derived from a folk memory of the people that inhabited the island of Great Britain before the Celts arrived. These people would have been armed only with stone, and hence iron would have been the decisive Celtic advantage.
In contemporary belief, fairies are often characterised as fundamentally benevolent in demeanour; this does not, however, hold true in many historical manifestations. The belief in changeling children, for instance, where the fairies would steal away a mortal child and replace it with one of their own, was widespread in mediaeval times; this motif appears in the folk-songs Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin, among others.
William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream deals extensively with the subject of fairy-folk and their interaction with a group of amateur theatrical players. This work details the spell cast by the mischievous fairy Puck (at the behest of the fairy-king Oberon) on Oberon's wife Titania, who falls in love with the first mortal she casts eyes upon, the unfortunate Bottom, whom Puck has transmogrified into having a donkey's head.
William S. Gilbert liked fairies and wrote several plays about them. The best is the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Iolanthe which deals with a conflict between fairies and the House of Lords and, among other issues, touches on some of the practical consequences of fairy/human marriages and cross-breeding in a humorous manner.
Artists such as Brian Froud, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. Cicely Mary Barker and Peg Maltby have all created beautiful illustrations of Fairies.
Conversely, the Victorian painter Richard Dadd was responsible for some paintings of fairy-folk with an altogether more sinister and malign nature. The Victorians in Britain were much taken with the notion of fairies in the wake of the Cottingley fairies photographs, and a number of artists turned to painting fairy themes. Another notable Victorian painter of fairies was the artist and illustrator Arthur Rackham.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Fairy."
Synonym: FAIRIESSynonym: Brownies. (additional references) |
Crosswords: FAIRIES |
| English words defined with "FAIRIES": Annwfn, Annwn, Arawn, Auf ♦ brownie ♦ elf, Elf arrow ♦ faerie, faery, fairy, fairy story, fairyland, Fairylike, fairytale ♦ gremlin ♦ hob ♦ imp ♦ Mad ♦ Oberon ♦ pixie, pixy ♦ spirit world ♦ titania. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "FAIRIES": Alfheim ♦ Durandana ♦ Fairy, Fairy Darts, Fairy Hillocks, Fairy Loaves, Fairy Sparks ♦ Gleipnir, Gods ♦ Luck of Eden Hall ♦ Orfeo and Heurodis ♦ PAN ♦ Rowland, Ryme ♦ Urgan ♦ Yumboes. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "FAIRIES": Fairy. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I don't believe in fairies. Oops, a fairy died (Hook; writing credit: James V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo. Based on the play 'Peter Pan' by J.M. Barrie.) Well, someone's gotta pay for these costumes and dancing fairies! (Will & Grace; writing credit: Evan Weinstein) That's why fairies come and get them (Aqua Teen Hunger Force; writing credit: Matt Maiellaro; Dave Willis) All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal (Taxi Driver; writing credit: Paul Schrader) Heaven could be like the pixie fairies of bubblegum forrest (South Park; writing credit: Rocco Siffredi) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Attack of the 5 Fairies Monastery (1961) Star Fairies (1986) Fairies (1978) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Fairies, ferns, and birds. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Fairies in flower costume among mushrooms. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Boy with donkey head and fairies with butterfly wings] / Steele, 25. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Shakspeare [sic] - Midsummer Nights Dream Act IV Scene I--A wood - Titiania [i.e., Titania], queen of the fairies, Bottom, fairies attending & etc. / / painted by H. Fuseli, R.A. ; engraved by I.P. Simon. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Rules and Regulations | Carroll, Lewis | Believe in fairies. |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | There were other dolls behind the large one that appeared to her to be fairies and genii |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | FAIRY, n. A creature, variously fashioned and endowed, that formerly inhabited the meadows and forests. It was nocturnal in its habits, and somewhat addicted to dancing and the theft of children. The fairies are now believed by naturalist to be extinct, though a clergyman of the Church of England saw three near Colchester as lately as 1855, while passing through a park after dining with the lord of the manor. The sight greatly staggered him, and he was so affected that his account of it was incoherent. In the year 1807 a troop of fairies visited a wood near Aix and carried off the daughter of a peasant, who had been seen to enter it with a bundle of clothing. The son of a wealthy bourgeois disappeared about the same time, but afterward returned. He had seen the abduction been in pursuit of the fairies. Justinian Gaux, a writer of the fourteenth century, avers that so great is the fairies' power of transformation that he saw one change itself into two opposing armies and fight a battle with great slaughter, and that the next day, after it had resumed its original shape and gone away, there were seven hundred bodies of the slain which the villagers had to bury. He does not say if any of the wounded recovered. In the time of Henry III, of England, a law was made which prescribed the death penalty for "Kyllynge, wowndynge, or mamynge" a fairy, and it was universally respected. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "FAIRIES" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 98.31% of the time. "FAIRIES" is used about 178 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 98.31% | 175 | 23,506 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.69% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 178 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "FAIRIES": sea-fairies. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "FAIRIES"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Chinese | 神仙 (Fairy). (various references) | |
German | Feen. (various references) | |
Korean | ìš"ì • (Banshee, Banshie, Fairy). (various references) | |
Manx | yn vooinjer veggey, sleih beggey, mooinjer ny king veggey, ferrishyn, cloan ny moyrn, ad hene. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | airiesfay.(various references) | |
Turkish | periler (elves, fairydom, genii, little people, the little people). (various references) | |
Welsh | tylwyth teg. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"FAIRIES" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: airies, ayries, fairen, faires, fairess, fairie, Fairisle, Fairleys, Fairminer, Fairnilee, fairys, Faizieh, farie, faries, Faurie, Feireiss, feirie, feiris, Feirus, fieries, mairies. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "FAIRIES" (pronounced fe"rēz) |
| 5 | f e" r ē z | ferries. |
| 4 | -e" r ē z | berries, buries, canaries, cherries, dairies, Harries, marries, varies. |
| 3 | -r ē z | actuaries, adversaries, allegories, asymmetries, aviaries, conservatories, contemporaries, corollaries, beneficiaries, blackberries, blueberries, cadres, capillaries, carries, categories, cemeteries, Ceres, commentaries, commissaries, confectionaries, countries, cowries, cranberries, dictionaries, dignitaries, dormitories, emissaries, entries, estuaries, fiduciaries, foundries, functionaries, geometries, glories, imageries, industries, intermediaries, interrogatories, inventories, itineraries, juries, laboratories, lampreys, laundries, lavatories, legionaries, libraries, lorries, luminaries, mercenaries, militaries, miniseries, ministries, missionaries, monasteries, obituaries, observatories, ordinaries, pastries, pleasantries, prairies, preliminaries, primaries, proprietaries, quarries, queries, raspberries, reactionaries, reformatories, registries, repositories, revolutionaries, rivalries, safaris, sanctuaries, saris, secondaries, secretaries, seminaries, sentries, series, signatories, stories, strawberries, subsidiaries, tapestries, temporaries, territories, theories, toiletries, tories, tributaries, visionaries. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-f-i-i-r-s" | |
-1 letter: ferias, fraise. | |
-2 letters: afire, arise, fairs, fares, fears, feria, fiars, fires, fries, frise, raise, reifs, safer, serai, serif. | |
-3 letters: airs, ares, arfs, arse, ears, eras, fair, fare, fear, fiar, fire, firs, frae, ires, iris, rase, refs, reif, reis, rias, rife, rifs, rise, safe, sari, sear, seif, sera, serf, sire. | |
-4 letters: air, ais, are, arf. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-f-i-i-r-s" | |
+1 letter: aerifies, basifier, friaries, gasifier, ramifies, rarifies, ratifies. | |
+2 letters: airfields, aperitifs, artifices, basifiers, carnifies, clarifies, falsifier, frailties, gasifiers, gratifies, pacifiers, ratifiers, sacrifice, scarified, scarifier, scarifies, viniferas. | |
+3 letters: acidifiers, amplifiers, artificers, clarifiers, classifier, falsifiers, farrieries, feracities, filariases, financiers, fricatives, infantries, infuriates, laticifers, magnifiers, qualifiers, repacifies, sacrificed, sacrificer, sacrifices, sanctifier, saponifier, scarifiers, stratified, stratifies, tackifiers. | |
+4 letters: airfreights, beautifiers, classifiers, disaffirmed, familiarise, fibrillates, fiduciaries, fingernails, formalities, formicaries, fragilities, fratricides, frugalities, grainfields, infiltrates, infirmaries, officiaries, preachifies, profanities, quantifiers, requalifies, sacrificers, sanctifiers, saponifiers, superficial, transfinite. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
