# fairish
## English
### Etymology

From fair +‎ -ish.

### Adjective

fairish (not comparable)
* Of moderate quality, size, etc.
** 1917, Christopher Morley, chapter 3, in Parnassus on Wheels, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 26:Andrew pays all the farm expenses, but the housekeeping accounts fall to me. I make a fairish amount of pin money on my poultry and some of my preserves that I send to Boston, [...]
** 2019, George Borrow, Theodore Watts-Dunton, The Romany Rye:Lord bless you, I know all the breeders about here; they are not a bad set, and they breed a very fairish set of horses, but they are not like what their fathers were, nor are their horses like their fathers' horses .
** 1872, Edward Peacock, Mabel Heron, page 220:"I did pretty fairish," replied Benjamin, modestly
** 1873, Cupples Howe, The Deserted Ship, page 36:Altogether we got a fairish lot of skins of one kind and another .
** 1891, J. G. P. Vereker, “Freehand Drawing and Photography”, in Journal of Microscopy and Natural Science, page 228:For those who aspire to do the highest and most difficult work, all this may be necessary; but for those who would like to experiment in the art, and who with to turn out fairish work and get results good enough for ordinary purposes, a much cheaper and simpler apparatus will answer.·
* In reasonable health and spirits, but not great.
** 1902, James M. Barrie, The Admirable Crichton:Lord Loam (To Tompsett, as they partake of tea together): And how are all at home? Tompsett: Fairish, my lord,
** 1911, Marjorie Benton Cooke, Dr. David, page 33:" How are you, Mudge –all right?" "Fairish much obliged to you for lugging me home .My man told me."
** 1935, Journal of the Outdoor Life - Volume 32, page 11:While feeling " fairish," she had lost her appetite again; was being fed liver extract .
* Used as a mile intensifier
** 1915, Elinor Mordaunt, The Family, page 308:Then I went and fetched him; though I had the deuce of a bother making the coppers believe that he was my brother—you see he was in a fairish mess, but he did look like a gentleman, which is more than I do nowadays.
** 1921, David Herbert Lawrence, The Ladybird:'It seems you'll find a fairish mess out in Austria,' said Basil.
** 2013, Tim Lankester, The Politics and Economics of Britain's Foreign Aid, page 139:At the same time, I have tried to stand back and describe objectively why and how, in the then Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurds words, it turned out to be a "fairish nightmare"—a nightmare for which most principals involved, including myself, bear some responsitibility.
* Of reasonable fairness; even-handed or equitable, but probably not as good as one wants.
** 1977, Stanley Middleton, Ends and Means, page 224:This was a. fairish judgement, he thought, if hard.·
** 2015, Robert Fabbri, Rome's Lost Son:'It's a. fairish price, ' he said grudgingly.
** 2022, Rolf Boldrewood, In Bad Company, and other stories:I had a fairish contract, and though the mail was a heavy one, I was able to manage it by riding one horse and leading a packer.
* (of weather) Mostly mild and clement.
** 1909 July 1, “The Weather”, in Journal of Agriculture and Horticulture, volume 13, number 1, page 45:Fairish all day but clouded all over at 6 p.m.
** 1910, Charles Tenney Jackson, My Brother's Keeper, page 273:"Well, well," he went on slowly, "a fairish day–a bit frost coming. Nelse says there'll be snow up the Lake diveesion, late as it is."
** 1972, Samuel Curwen, Andrew Oliver, The Journal of Samuel Curwen, Loyalist, page 833:Morn fairish, after cloudy and rainy appearance .
** 2013, Hammond Innes, Maddon's Rock:Weather forecasts were good again and the chances of arriving at Maddon's Rock in fairish weather looked reasonably bright .
* (of hair or skin) Somewhat fair or light-colored.
** 2001, John V. Day, Indo-European Origins: The Anthropological Evidence, page 124:Suetonius describes Augustus with leviter inflexum et subflavum 'wavy and fairish' hair (Divus Augustus 79), which, coupled with his bright eyes and medium complexion , perhaps awards him the bravery of a lion (Evans 1935: 65–6; 1969:53-4; Gascou 1984:603).
** 2004, Leslie Lafoy, The Perfect Temptation:Of middling height, with fairish skin and raven dark curls peeking from beneath a stylish bonnet.
** 2017, JP Delaney, The Girl Before:One, I'm pretty sure, is Edward Monkford. The same fairish curls framing a lean, ascetic face as in a photo I found on the internet; the same black cashmere pullover and white open-necked shirt.
* (dialect) Pertaining to fairies.
** 1928, Romer Wilson, All Alone: The Life and Private History of Emily Jane Brontë, page 65:In this tongue she sang the children ballads and told them tales of the 'fairish' (fairies) which lived in the Bottom before machinery drove them away, stories of the graves under the rectory back-kitchen, 'of witches running red-hot needles into human flesh.'
** 2016, Abigail Heiniger, Jane Eyre's Fairytale Legacy at Home and Abroad, page 38:This tale opens in "that part of merry England called Derbyshire" (3); when the foundling character, Sydney, is introduced in a British garden, he is immediately associated with fairies or the "fairish” (4).
** 2018, Tephra Miriam, Escape to Clown Town, page 31:In the glory days of the royal fairish clan, members of the royal fairish family were given the special task of travelling to Felanthiam and caring for their mother star.

#### Derived terms

* fairishly

### Noun

fairish (plural fairishes)
* (dialect) A fairy.
** 1855, Harriet Farley, Happy Hours at Hazel Nook, Or, Cottage Stories, page 220:Next day, Kathy took the potato her mother gave her, and gnawing it all to the heart, she set out upon her search for the fairish, munching at the half-raw core as she went her way. She found the fairish waiting by the bog, with her lap full of berries, and some mealy roots, like sweet, boiled radishes.
** 1887, May Laffan, Ismay's Children, page 328:' Fairishes! Oh Lard!' she vociferated. 'Fairishes! Don't look at dem, your honour - oh, don't! As sure as you live you'll break your leg inside of a week if you looks dat em.'
** 2009, Anita Rose, Gender and Victorian Reform, page 211:Years back, the housekeeper says, her mother encounted the "last fairish" that ever was seen in the hollow.

### Anagrams

* Sharifi