Hyphenation
fa·ırySynonyms
fay,
fey,
fae,
sprite,
fag,
faggot,
poof,
queen,
bogie,
brownie,
elf,
enchanter,
genie,
gnome,
goblinEtymology
[ 'far-E, 'fer- ] (noun.) 14th century. From Middle English fairie, from Old French faerie, the -erie abstract of fae, from Vulgar Latin Fāta (“goddess of fate”), from Latin fātum (“fate”) English from ca. 1300, first in the sense of "enchantment, illusion, dream" and later "realm of the fays, fairy-land" or "the inhabitants of fairyland as a collective".
The re-interpretation of the term as a countable noun denoting individual inhabitants of fairy-land can be traced to the 1390s, but becomes common only in the 16th century.