"F" Word Origins

fag

Origin

Probably from "fag end," meaning a leftover scrap or remnant.

faggot

Old French

From Old French fagot, "bundle of sticks," of uncertain deeper origin.

Fagin

Origin

From Fagin, the character who runs a gang of child pickpockets in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist.

fagot

Latin

Likely from Italian fagotto, ultimately from Latin fascis, "bundle."

Fahrenheit

Russian · 1700

Named after the Prussian scientist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, who devised the scale in the early 18th century.

fail

Latin

From Old French falir, ultimately from Latin fallere, "to deceive or disappoint."

failure

Old French

From Anglo-Norman failer, from Old French faillir, "to fail," combined with the suffix "-ure."

fain

Old English

From Old English fægen, "glad, joyful," a word going back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "glad."

faineance

Origin

Alteration of faineant.

faineant

Origin

From Old French fay neant, alteration of feignant (“idler”), present participle of feindre, modelled on fait (“does”) + neant (“nothing”).

faint

Latin

From Old French faint/feint, "feigned" or "sluggish," ultimately from Latin fingere, "to shape or contrive" — a distant relative of "feign" and "fiction."

fainting

Middle English

From Middle English feinting, equivalent to faint + -ing.

faintly

Middle English

From Middle English feintli, feintliche, equivalent to faint + -ly.

fair

Old English

From Old English fæger, "beautiful."

fairbank

Origin

From fair + bank.

Fairbanks

Origin

From fair + bank.

Fairfax

Origin

English surname, equivalent to fair + fax (sense 1), "beautiful tresses."

Fairfield

Old English

From Old English fæġer (“beautiful, fair”) + feld (“field”), equivalent to fair + field.

fairground

Origin

From "fair" (a public entertainment event) plus "ground."

fairing

Origin

From fair (“community gathering, market”). In the sense of food, because cakes and sweets were sold at fairs.

fairly

Middle English

From Middle English fayrly, fayrely, vayrliche, equivalent to fair + -ly.

fairness

Old English

From Old English fægernes, "beauty, pleasantness," built from "fair" plus the suffix "-ness."

fairway

Origin

From "fair" plus "way."

fairy

Old French

From Old French faerie, "enchantment," built from fae ("fay") plus "-erie." Originally meant the state of enchantment itself before coming to mean an individual magical creature.

fairyland

Origin

From "fairy" plus "land."

Faisal

Arabic

From Arabic فَيْصَل (fayṣal, literally “arbiter”).

Fait

German

Various origins: * A variant of German Veit. * Borrowed from Czech or Polish Fait, both from the German surname. * Perhaps from an obsolete English personal name derived from Anglo-Norman afaitie (“accomplished, skillful”).

faith

Latin

From Old French feid, from Latin fidem ("trust"). The silent "th" spelling was added later in English, likely influenced by words like "truth" and "health."

faithful

Middle English

From Middle English feithful, built from faith plus the suffix -ful ("full of").

faithfully

Middle English

From Middle English feithfulli, formed from faithful plus -ly.

faithfulness

Origin

From faithful plus the suffix -ness.

faithless

Origin

From faith plus the suffix -less ("without").

fake

German · 1775

First recorded around 1775 in British criminal slang; its exact origin is uncertain, though it may trace back to a German word meaning "to polish" or "spruce up."

fakeness

Origin

From fake + -ness.

faker

Origin

From fake plus the agent suffix -er.

fakir

Arabic

Borrowed from Arabic faqīr, meaning "poor man."

falafel

Arabic

Borrowed from Arabic falāfil.

falchion

Origin

From Middle English fauchoun, from Old French fauchon (cognate with Italian falcione), from Vulgar Latin *falciōnem, from Latin falx.

Falco

Italian

Borrowed from Romance; from Italian Falco and Catalan Falcó.

falcon

Late Latin

From Old French falcun, from Late Latin falco, likely from a Germanic word related to "pale" or "fallow" — possibly describing the bird's coloring.

Falcone

Italian

Borrowed from Italian Falcone.

falconer

Old French

From Old French fauconer, from faucon ("falcon").

Falk

German

As a surname, from German, Yiddish, and Scandinavian words for "falcon."

falkner

Origin

Variant of Falconer.

fall

Old English

From Old English feallan ("to fall, fail, die"). The sense "autumn" developed in English as a shortening of the older phrase "fall of the leaf."

fallacious

Latin

From Latin fallax, fallac- 'deceitful', from fallere 'to deceive'. The same root gives English fail, fault and false.

fallacy

Latin

From Latin fallacia ("deception"), from fallere ("to deceive").

fallal

Origin

Perhaps an alteration of falbala (“furbelow”), from French.