Pronounced: PET-ee-fog-uhr, noun
Notes: I have run across this word, but I could not define it
Yesterday’s word
The word fey means
- fated to die (chiefly used in Scotland)
- marked by a foreboding of death or calamity
- excessively refined; precious
- quaintly unconventional; campy
First usage
Our word came into English before 900
Background / Comments
When I read the definitions above, I was surprised because I thought that it meant the state of being in unnaturally high spirits, and (as you can read above) this was not one of the definitions. However, in checking the background, I found another meaning online that is exactly that meaning, so I don’t feel quite as wrong as I did previously. In Old English and Middle English our word meant “feeble” or “sickly”. It was in the late 1900s that the meaning of our word changed to include the “precious” and “campy” meanings.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 