fair
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɛə/
ipa: /fɛː/
ipa: /fɛɚ/
ipa: /feː/
note: without the cheer–chair merger
ipa: /feə/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
ipa: /fiə/
ipa: /feɹ/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /fɜː(ɹ)/
homophone: fare
homophone: fear (cheer–chair merger)
homophone: fir (fair–fur merger)
homophone: fur (fair–fur merger)
rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
Forms: form: fairer
form: fairest
Etymology: From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“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”). See also peace.
Senses: examples: text: Monday's child is fair of face.
text: There was once a knight who wooed a fair young maid.
text: He is so fayre, withoutten les, / he semys full well to sytt on des.
ref: 15th c., “[The Creation]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 5, lines 120–121:
english: He is so fair, without any limit; his appearance shows well when he sits on the dais.
translation: He is so fair, without any limit; his appearance shows well when he sits on the dais.
bold_translation_offsets: 9
13
text: That the ſonnes of God ſaw the daughters of men, that they were faire, and they took them wiues, of all which they choſe.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 6:2, column 1:
text: "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.
ref: 1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “Champion and Chief”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1917 October, →OCLC, page 96:
text: 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.
ref: 2010, Stephan Grundy, Beowulf (Fiction), iUniverse, →ISBN, page 33:
synonyms: beautiful
pretty
lovely
qualifier: original sense
glosses: Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.
examples: text: one's fair name
text: After scratching out and replacing various words in the manuscript, he scribed a fair copy to send to the publisher.
text: The Table hauing at the Communion time a faire white linnen cloth vpon it, shall stand in the body of the Church, or in the Chancell, where Morning prayer and Euening prayer be appointed to be said.
ref: 1605, “The order for the administration of the Lords Supper, or holy Communion”, in The Booke of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, London: Robert Barker:
text: 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, London, Observation 21, “Of Moss, and several other small vegetative Substances,” p. 135,
[…] I have observ’d, that putting fair Water (whether Rain-water or Pump-water, or May-dew, or Snow-water, it was almost all one) I have often observ’d, I say, that this Water would, with a little standing, tarnish and cover all about the sides of the Glass that lay under water, with a lovely green […]
synonyms: pure
clean
neat
glosses: Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.
examples: text: She had fair hair and blue eyes.
text: the northern people large and fair-complexioned
ref: 1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, page 200:
text: 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.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
synonyms: pale
antonyms: swarthy
glosses: Light in color, pale, particularly with regard to skin tone but also referring to blond and red hair.
examples: text: He must be given a fair trial.
text: “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
synonyms: honest
just
equitable
glosses: Just, equitable.
examples: text: Their performance has been only fair.
text: The patient was in a fair condition after some treatment.
text: 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.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: The words of these songs were either without meaning, or derived from an idiom with which Watt, a very fair linguist, had no acquaintance.
ref: 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
synonyms: OK
okay
glosses: Adequate, reasonable, or decent, but not excellent.
examples: text: I shipped with them and becoming friends, we set forth on our venture, in health and safety; and sailed with a fair wind, till we came to a city called Madínat-al-Sín; […]
ref: 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Night 563”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Favorable to a ship's course.
raw_tags: of a wind
examples: text: The weather was fair today.
glosses: Favorable, pleasant.
examples: text: a fair sky
text: They had good weather and tolerably fair winds, and before they entered the Straits of Magellan the captain had formulated a plan for the disposition of Garta.
ref: 1909, Frank R. Stockton, The adventures of Captain Horn, Chapter 42:
glosses: Favorable, pleasant.
Not overcast; cloudless; clear.
examples: text: a fair mark;  in fair sight;  a fair view
text: The caliphs obtained a mighty empire, which was in a fair way to have enlarged.
ref: c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War:
glosses: Favorable, pleasant.
Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed; unencumbered; open; direct; said of a road, passage, etc.
topics: business
manufacturing
shipbuilding
glosses: Without sudden change of direction or curvature; smooth; flowing; said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces, water lines, and other lines.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Between the baselines.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
rugby
sports
glosses: Taken direct from an opponent's foot, without the ball touching the ground or another player.
raw_tags: of a catch
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Not a no ball.
raw_tags: of a ball delivered by the bowler
examples: text: A fair coin has a 50% chance of landing on heads.
topics: mathematics
sciences
statistics
glosses: Of a coin or die, having equal chance of landing on any side, unbiased.
Derived terms: a fair bit
a fair booty makes many a thief
a fair few
all's fair in love and war
by fair means or foul
culture-fair
everything is fair in love and war
faint heart never won fair lady
fair and square
fair as the day
fair ball
Fairbank
Fairbanks
fair bet
fair-built
fair cake-cutting
fair catch
fair comment
fair cop
fair copy
fair crack of the whip
fair dealing
fair dinks
fair dinkum
fair division
fair doos
fair dos
fair do's
fair enough
fair exchange is no robbery
fair fucks
fair game
fair go
fair-haired
fairhanded
Fairhaven
Fairhead
Fair Head
fair-headed
fairheaded
fairhood
fair is fair
fairish
Fair Isle
Fair Lawn
fairlead
fairleader
fair leather
fair linen
fair list
fairmaid
fair-maid-of-France
fair maids of France
fair-mannered
fair market value
fair-minded
fairness
Fair Oaks
fair penny
fair play
fair sex
fair's fair
fair shake
fair shake of the sauce bottle
fair share
fair-sized
fair-skinned
fairsome
fair-spoken
fair suck of the pineapple
fair suck of the sauce bottle
fair suck of the sauce stick
fair suck of the sav
fair to meddling
fair-to-middlin'
fair to middlin'
fair to middling
fair-to-middling
fair trade
fair trial
fair use
fair value
fair warning
fairwater
fairway
fair-weather
fair weather fan
fair-weather friend
fair weather friend
fair-weather friendship
fair wind
fancy fair
hyperfair
make fair weather
money and fair words
no fair
North Fair Oaks
play fair
set-fair
set fair
snout-fair
superfair
to be fair
turnabout is fair play
turn about is fair play
you can't say fairer than that