- 1 English
- 1.1 Pronunciation
- 1.2 Etymology 1
- 1.3 Etymology 2
- 1.4 Statistics
- 2 German
- 3 Irish
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /fɛə(ɹ)/, /fɛː(ɹ)/
- (General American) IPA(key): /fɛɚ/
Audio (US) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
- Homophone: fare
From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“fair, lovely, beautiful; pleasant, agreeable; attractive”), from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”).
- (literary or archaic) Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.
- Monday's child is fair of face.
- There was once a knight who wooed a fair young maid.
1917, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars, edition HTML, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:
- "It was a purely scientific research party sent out by my father's father, the Jeddak of Helium, to rechart the air currents, and to take atmospheric density tests," replied the fair prisoner, in a low, well-modulated voice.
2010, Stephan Grundy, Beowulf, Fiction, iUniverse, ISBN 9781440156977, page 33:
- And yet he was also, though many generations separated them, distant cousin to the shining eoten-main Geard, whom the god Frea Ing had seen from afar and wedded; and to Scatha, the fair daughter of the old thurse Theasa, who had claimed a husband from among the gods as weregild for her father's slaying: often, it was said, the ugliest eotens would sire the fairest maids.
- Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.
- one's fair name
- After scratching out and replacing various words in the manuscript, he scribed a fair copy to send to the publisher.
- Book of Common Prayer
- a fair white linen cloth
- Light in color, pale, particularly as regards skin tone but also referring to blond hair.
- She had fair hair and blue eyes.
- 1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, page 200
- the northern people large and fair-complexioned
- 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, Ch.I:
- This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair, and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder.
- Just, equitable.
- He must be given a fair trial.
- Adequate, reasonable, or decent.
- The patient was in a fair condition after some treatment.
1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.
- (nautical, of a wind) Favorable to a ship's course.
- Not overcast; cloudless; clear; pleasant; propitious; said of the sky, weather, or wind, etc.
- a fair sky; a fair day
- Matthew Prior (1664-1721)
- You wish fair winds may waft him over.
- Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed; unencumbered; open; direct; said of a road, passage, etc.
- a fair mark; in fair sight; a fair view
- Sir Walter Raleigh (ca.1554-1618)
- The caliphs obtained a mighty empire, which was in a fair way to have enlarged.
- (shipbuilding) Without sudden change of direction or curvature; smooth; flowing; said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces, water lines, and other lines.
- (baseball) Between the baselines.
- (beautiful): beautiful, pretty, lovely
- (unblemished): pure, clean, neat
- (light in color): pale
- (just): honest, just, equitable
fair (plural fair)
- Something which is fair (in various senses of the adjective).
- When will we learn to distinguish between the fair and the foul?
- (obsolete) A woman, a member of the ‘fair sex’; also as a collective singular, women.
- 1744, Georg Friedrich Händel, Hercules, act 2, scene 8
- Love and Hymen, hand in hand,
- Come, restore the nuptial band!
- And sincere delights prepare
- To crown the hero and the fair.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 39:
- In enjoying, therefore, such place of rendezvous, the British fair ought to esteem themselves more happy than any of their foreign sisters […]
- 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, III.24:
- If single, probably his plighted Fair / Has in his absence wedded some rich miser [...].
- 1744, Georg Friedrich Händel, Hercules, act 2, scene 8
- (obsolete) Fairness, beauty.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
- A fair woman; a sweetheart.
- I have found out a gift for my fair.
- (obsolete) Good fortune; good luck.
- Now fair befall thee!
- To smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).
- To bring into perfect alignment (especially about rivet holes when connecting structural members).
- To construct or design a structure whose primary function is to produce a smooth outline or reduce air drag or water resistance.
- (obsolete) To make fair or beautiful.
- Fairing the foul.
- (to reduce air drag or water resistance): to streamline
- Clearly; openly; frankly; civilly; honestly; favorably; auspiciously; agreeably.
fair (plural fairs)
- A community gathering to celebrate and exhibit local achievements.
- An event for public entertainment and trade, a market.
1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 7, The Mirror and the Lamp:
- The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.
- An event for professionals in a trade to learn of new products and do business.
- A funfair, an amusement park.
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
fair (not comparable)
- just, equitable, adequate, honest, in good spirit
- ein faires Spiel
- Es ist nur fair, auch wenn alle gleich schlecht behandelt werden.
|predicative||er ist fair||sie ist fair||es ist fair||sie sind fair|
(with definite article)
|nominative||der faire||die faire||das faire||die fairen|
|genitive||des fairen||der fairen||des fairen||der fairen|
|dative||dem fairen||der fairen||dem fairen||den fairen|
|accusative||den fairen||die faire||das faire||die fairen|
(with indefinite article)
|nominative||ein fairer||eine faire||ein faires||(keine) fairen|
|genitive||eines fairen||einer fairen||eines fairen||(keiner) fairen|
|dative||einem fairen||einer fairen||einem fairen||(keinen) fairen|
|accusative||einen fairen||eine faire||ein faires||(keine) fairen|
- ausgeglichen (referring to several sides or concurring parties)
- sauber (fig.)
- fair in Duden online
- to watch
† Dialect form
‡The d’ of this form is found only in the independent construction; it disappears in the dependent construction.
|Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.