fain
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /feɪn/
homophone: fane
homophone: feign
homophone: foehn
rhymes: -eɪn
Forms: form: fainer
form: fainest
form: faine
Etymology: From Middle English fain (“eagerly, willingly; gladly, joyfully”), from fain (adjective): see etymology 1.
Senses: examples: text: And in her hand ſhe held a mirrhour bright, / VVherein her face ſhe often vevved fayne, / And in her ſelfe-lou'd ſemblance tooke delight; / For ſhe vvas vvondrous faire, as any liuing vvight.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 10, page 48:
text: I vvould faine knovv vvhat you haue to ſay.
ref: 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], signature F2, verso:
text: Yet dearely I love you, and vvould be lov'd faine, / But am betroth'd unto your enemie, […]
ref: 1609–1610 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “[Holy Sonnets] Sonnet X [Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God]”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, →OCLC, page 38:
text: Hence it's evident, that vvere our Eyes turned into the Nature of Microſcopes, vve […] ſhou'd be derpiv'd of the foremention'd Advantage vve at preſent receive by the Viſive Faculty; and have left us only the empty Amuſement of Seeing, vvithout any other benefit ariſing from it. But in that Caſe, it vvill perhaps be ſaid, our Sight vvou'd be endued vvith a far greater Sharpneſs and Penetration than it novv hath. But I vvou'd fain knovv vvherein conſiſts that Sharpneſs, vvhich is eſteem'd ſo great an Excellency of Sight.
ref: 1709, George Berkeley, “[Section] LXXXVI. The Case of Microscopical Eyes, Consider’d.”, in An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision, Dublin: […] Aaron Rhames, […], for Jeremy [i.e., Jeremiah] Pepyat, […], →OCLC, pages 97–98:
text: The Second Thing I vvould fain have had, vvas a Tobacco-Pipe, but it vvas impoſſible to me to make one, hovvever I found a Contrivance for that too at laſt.
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, →OCLC, pages 126–127:
text: She who would fain give the starry worlds to the object of her affection—it is a fine and beautiful pride which makes her shrink from aught of benefit from him.
ref: 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 223:
text: And here, as I write, the faint, scarcely perceptible, ghost-like suspicion of a scent—a mere nostalgic fancy, compound, generic, synthetic and all-embracing—an abstract olfactory symbol of the "Tout Paris" of fifty years ago, comes back to me out of the past; and fain would I inhale it in all its pristine fulness and vigour.
ref: 1891, George du Maurier, “Part First”, in Peter Ibbetson […], New York, N.Y.: Harper and Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 63–64:
text: A heavy weight is on his lids, / His limbs move slow with heaviness, / And he full fain would sleep.
ref: 1801, Robert Southey, “The Tenth Book”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume II, London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC, page 216:
text: [S]he taketh her hands in her hands and kisseth her sweet and fain: […]
ref: 1877, William Morris, “Of the Dream of Gudrun the Daughter of Giuki”, in The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs, London: Ellis and White, […], →OCLC, book III (Brynhild), page 173:
glosses: Chiefly preceded or followed by would.
With joy or pleasure; gladly.
examples: text: Now vvould I giue a thouſand furlongs of Sea, for an Acre of barren ground: Long heath, Brovvne firrs, any thing; the vvills aboue be done, but I vvould faine dye a dry death.
ref: 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 1, column 2:
text: For to tell you truth, I love him [Jesus], because I vvas by him eaſed of my burden, and I am vveary of my invvard ſickneſs; I vvould fain be vvhere I ſhall die no more, and vvith the Company that ſhall continually cry Holy, Holy, Holy.
ref: 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 58:
text: See now, I will for the second time bathe me in this living bath. Fain would I add to my beauty and my length of days if that be possible.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Spirit of Life”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 290:
text: As a matter of fact, although Woman means everything to Man’s sexuality, and is the embodiment of all that his reproductive instinct can desire, even when it is at its keenest, Man means very little to Woman. He is, after all, no more than the sparking-plug that sets an elaborate process going, and the brief moment in which his share in her business is accomplished, and the incomplete pleasure it affords her, are ridiculously insignificant when compared with the importance he himself would fain attach to them.
ref: 1923, Anthony Ludovici, “The Positive Man and the Positive Woman”, in Woman; A Vindication, London: Constable & Co., →OCLC:
glosses: Chiefly preceded or followed by would.
By choice or will; willingly.
synonyms: lief