fairy

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A small imaginary creature with magical powers, often shown with wings.

   The story was about a fairy who granted three wishes.

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Simplified etymology

Fairy entered English in the Middle English period and ultimately derives from Latin fata, “the Fates.” Faierie was originally a collective form, while fae, now also fay, was singular; the spelling faerie is first recorded in Edmund Spenser’s title The Faerie Queene.

From Middle English faierie, fairie, from Old French faerie, from fae + -erie, from Latin fāta (“goddess of fate”). Equivalent to fay + -ry. Attested in English from about 1330, in King Alisaunder, first in the sense of "enchantment, illusion, dream" ("that thou herdest is fairye") and shortly thereafter "realm of the fays, fairy-land" and "the inhabitants of fairyland, collectively". The re-interpretation of the term as a countable noun denoting individual inhabitants of fairy-land can be traced to the 1390s, but became common only in the 16th century, perhaps due to reinterpreting phrases li…

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