Etymology: Partly < (i) Anglo-Norman fest, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French feste (French fête ) annual religious or ritual celebration or festival (c1050), collective festivities organized to celebrate an event (often including a banquet as well as other entertainments), rejoicing, festivity (all late 12th cent.) < classical Latin fēsta (plural; occasionally as singular, fēstum ) festival, feast day, holiday, banquet, use as noun of neuter plural (reinterpreted as feminine singular) of fēstus (adjective) festal, festive (see note), and partly (ii) < classical Latin fēstum (in post-classical Latin frequent as singular noun, especially in the sense ‘feast day, festival’); compare also post-classical Latin festus feast day, festival (late 2nd cent. in Tertullian), use as noun (short for dies festus ) of masculine of classical Latin fēstus . Compare fête n., a much later reborrowing of the modern French noun.Compare Old Occitan festa , Catalan festa (14th cent.), Spanish fiesta , Portuguese festa , Italian festa (all 12th cent.), and also ( < French) Middle Dutch, Dutch feest , ( < Latin) Middle High German fest , vest , German Fest , Old Swedish fäster , Swedish fest . Further etymology. Classical Latin fēstus probably derives from the Italic base of classical Latin fēria (see fair n.²) + the Italic base of -tus , suffix forming past participles. Specific senses. With sense 5b compare Middle French feste de village, French fête de village (1537 or earlier).

Etymology: Partly (i) < Anglo-Norman festir, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French fester (French fêter ) to feast, to make merry (first half of the 12th cent.), to celebrate a feast or an event (c1223), to provide (a person or group) with a feast (c1350) < feste feast n., and partly (ii) < feast n. Compare later festy v., and also the later reborrowing fete v.Compare Italian festare (early 14th cent., earliest in the sense ‘to celebrate (a feast day)’).