释义 |
fairy I. \ˈfa(a)rē, ˈfer-, ˈfār-, -ri\ noun (-es) Etymology: Middle English faierie, fairie fairyland, fairy people, enchantment, from Old French faerie, faierie, from fee, feie, fayee fairy (from Latin Fata goddess of fate, from fatum fate) + -erie -ery — more at fate 1. : a mythical being of folklore and romance usually having diminutive human form and magic powers and dwelling on earth in close relationship with man: a. : a dwarf creature typically having green clothes and hair, living underground or in stone heaps, and usually exercising his magic powers to benevolent ends b. : a diminutive sprite usually in the shape of a delicate beautiful ageless winged woman dressed in diaphanous white clothing, inhabiting fairyland, but making usually benevolent intervention in personal human affairs c. : a tiny mischievous and protective creature in a household usually associated with the hearth — compare brownie, elf, goblin, leprechaun, puck 2. : fairy green 3. a. : homosexual b. : a markedly effeminate man suspected of homosexual tendencies II. adjective 1. : of or relating to a fairy : being a fairy < the sprite made his fairy home in the cleft of an ancient tree > < the nuptials of the fairy queen > 2. : resembling or suggestive of a fairy in its delicacy or grace < their porcelains … showed a subtle fairy fragility — Time > < the viaduct comes into view, so slender, so exquisitely graceful, that … it seems a mere fairy thing — O.S.Nock > |