# faint
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /feɪnt/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Audio (General American):(file)
* Homophone: feint
* Rhymes: -eɪnt

### Etymology 1

From Middle English faynt, feynt (“weak; feeble”), from Old French faint, feint (“feigned; negligent; sluggish”), past participle of feindre, faindre (“to feign; sham; work negligently”), from Latin fingere (“to touch, handle, form, shape, frame, form in thought, imagine, conceive, contrive, devise, feign”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mold”). Cognate with feign and fiction and more distantly dough.

#### Adjective

faint (comparative fainter, superlative faintest)
* (of a being) Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness
    I felt faint after my fifth gin and tonic.
* Lacking courage, spirit, or energy; cowardly; dejected
** 1789, Robert Burns, to Dr. Blacklock:Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.
* Barely perceptible; not bright, or loud, or sharp
    Synonyms: dull, wan; see also Thesaurus:dim
    There was a faint red light in the distance.
* Performed, done, or acted, weakly; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy
    faint efforts
    faint resistance
* Slight; minimal.
** 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 243b:do you have the faintest understanding of what they mean?
* (archaic) Sickly, so as to make a person feel faint.
** 1843, Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit:Happening to pass a fruiterer’s on their way; the door of which was open, though the shop was by this time shut; one of them remarked how faint the peaches smelled.

##### Alternative forms

* (barely perceptible): feint (for printed lines)

##### Derived terms

* damn with faint praise
* fainten
* faintheart
* fainthearted
* faint-hearted
* faint heart never won fair lady
* fainthood
* faintish
* faintling
* faintly
* faintness
* faint of heart
* faintward
* forfaint
* overfaint
* praise with faint damns
* ultrafaint

##### Translations
#### Noun

faint (plural faints)
* The act of fainting, syncope.
    She suffered another faint.
* (rare) The state of one who has fainted; a swoon.

##### Derived terms

* faintful
* faintless
* faintsome

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From Middle English fainten, feynten, from the adjective (see above).

#### Verb

faint (third-person singular simple present faints, present participle fainting, simple past and past participle fainted)
* (intransitive) To lose consciousness through a lack of oxygen or nutrients to the brain, usually as a result of suddenly reduced blood flow (may be caused by emotional trauma, loss of blood or various medical conditions).
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 8:8:If I send them away fasting […] they will faint by the way.
** 1713 September 22, Richard Steele, The Guardian, number 167:But upon hearing the Honour which he intended her , she fainted away , and fell down as Dead at his Feet
* (intransitive) To lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 24:10:If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.
* (intransitive) To decay; to disappear; to vanish.
** November 12, 1711, Alexander Pope, letter to Henry Cromwell
    Gilded clouds, while we gaze upon them, faint before the eye.

##### Synonyms

* (to lose consciousness): pass out, swoon, sweb, black out, keel over
* queal

##### Derived terms

* afaint
* fainting goat
* faintingly
* faintingness
* fainty
* unfainting

##### Translations

Albanian: zalit
Arabic: (impersonal) أُغْمِيَ (ʔuḡmiya), (impersonal) غُشِيَ (ḡušiya)
Moroccan Arabic: سخف (sḵaf)
North Levantine Arabic: غمي (ḡimi), يُغْمى (yuḡma), أُغْمى (ʔuḡma), أُغْمِي (ʔuḡmi)
South Levantine Arabic: غمي (ḡimi), يُغْمى (yuḡma), أُغْمى (ʔuḡma), أُغْمِي (ʔuḡmi)
Armenian: նվաղել (hy) (nvaġel)
Bulgarian: припадам (bg) (pripadam)
Burmese: please add this translation if you can
Catalan: acubar-se, desmaiar-se
Cherokee: ᎤᎸᏖᎭ (ulvteha)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 昏過去 / 昏过去 (zh) (hūn guòqù), 昏倒 (zh) (hūndǎo), 暈厥 / 晕厥 (zh) (yūnjué), 發暈 / 发晕 (zh) (fāyūn)
Czech: omdlít (cs) pf, omdlévat impf
Danish: besvime, falde i svime (da)
Dutch: flauwvallen (nl), (formal) bezwijmen (nl)
Egyptian: (pꜣz)
Esperanto: sveni (eo)
Estonian: minestama
Faroese: svíma
Finnish: pyörtyä (fi), menettää tajuntansa, sammua (fi) (alcohol, colloquial)
French: s’évanouir (fr), pâmer (fr)
Galician: desmaiar (gl), esmaiar, desvanecer (gl), esvaecer (gl), esvaer, esmorir (archaic)
Georgian: please add this translation if you can
German: ohnmächtig werden, in Ohnmacht fallen;
Greek: λιποθυμώ (el) (lipothymó)
Ancient: ἀποψύχω (apopsúkhō), λιποθυμάω (lipothumáō), λιποψυχέω (lipopsukhéō), μικροψυχέω (mikropsukhéō)
Hebrew: הִתְעַלֵּף (he) (hit'aléf)
Hungarian: elájul (hu)
Icelandic: líða yfir, missa meðvitund
Ido: esvanar (io)
Indonesian: pingsan (id)
Irish: tit i laige
Italian: svenire (it)
Japanese: 失神する (ja) (しっしんする, shisshin suru)
Kabuverdianu: dismaia, desmaiá
Khmer: សន្លប់ (km) (sɑnlɑp)
Korean: 실신하다 (ko) (silsinhada)
Kyrgyz: байылуу (bayıluu)
Lithuanian: alpti, apalpti, nualpti
Malay: pengsan
Manchu: ᠯᡳᠶᡝᠯᡳᠶᡝᠮᠪᡳ (liyeliyembi)
Maore Comorian: uɓama
Maori: hauaitu, hauhauaitu, tirehe
Middle English: swelten
Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
Moroccan Amazigh: ⵙⵅⴼ (sxəf)
Ngazidja Comorian: uvuɓama
Norman: s'êvanni
Norwegian: svime av
Bokmål: besvime
Occitan: abautir (oc), s'estavanir
Ottoman Turkish: بایلمق (bayılmak)
Plautdietsch: beschwiemen
Polish: mdleć (pl) impf, zemdleć (pl) pf, omdleć pf
Portuguese: desmaiar (pt)
Romanian: leșina (ro)
Russian: па́дать в о́бморок impf (pádatʹ v óbmorok), упа́сть в о́бморок (ru) pf (upástʹ v óbmorok), теря́ть созна́ние impf (terjátʹ soznánije), потеря́ть созна́ние (ru) pf (poterjátʹ soznánije)
Scottish Gaelic: rach an neul
Serbo-Croatian: onesvijestiti (sh) pf, onesvestiti pf
Slovene: omedleti pf, omedlevati impf, onesvestiti se pf
Spanish: desmayar (es)
Swedish: svimma (sv)
Tagalog: himatayin
Tashelhit: ⵙⵅⴼ (sxəf)
Thai: สลบ (th) (sà-lòp), เป็นลม (th) (bpen-lom)
Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
Turkish: bayılmak (tr)
Ukrainian: неприто́мніти impf (neprytómnity), знеприто́мніти pf (zneprytómnity), млі́ти impf (mlíty), зомліва́ти impf (zomliváty), зомлі́ти pf (zomlíty)
Vietnamese: ngất (vi), xỉu (vi)
Walloon: toumer flåwe (wa), tchaire fwebe
Welsh: llewygu (cy)
Yiddish: חלשן (khaleshn) :

### Further reading

* “faint”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “faint”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “faint”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* Fanti, fitna

## Cimbrian
### Etymology

From Middle High German vīnt, vīent, vīant, from Old High German fīant, fīand, from Proto-Germanic *fijandz (“enemy, fiend”). Cognate with German Feind, English fiend.

### Noun

faint m (plural fainte)
* (Sette Comuni) enemy, fiend
    Biibel péssor möchte zeinan de bèlt as da börn khòone fainte?How much better would the world be if there were no enemies?

### References

* “faint” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

## Welsh
### Alternative forms

* pa faint (literary)

### Etymology

Shortened from pa faint (“what amount”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /vai̯nt/
* Rhymes: -ai̯nt

### Pronoun

faint m
* how much, how many

#### Usage notes

* Faint means "how many" when followed by o and the plural form of a countable noun and "how much" followed o and an uncountable noun.
       Faint o gathod? ― How many cats?
       Faint o goffi? ― How much coffee?
* Sawl, on the other hand, corresponds solely to English "how many" and is followed by the singular form of a countable noun.
       Sawl cath? ― How many cats?
       Sawl coffi? ― How many coffees?

#### Derived terms

* faint bynnag (“however many”)
* ta faint (“however many”)