fair - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”).

Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”). See also peace.

fair (comparative fairer, superlative fairest)

  1. (original sense, archaic or literary) Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.
    Synonyms: beautiful, pretty, lovely
    Monday's child is fair of face.
    There was once a knight who wooed a fair young maid.
    • 15th c., “[The Creation]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 5, lines 120–121:
      He is so fayre, withoutten les, / he semys full well to sytt on des.
      He is so fair, without any limit; his appearance shows well when he sits on the dais.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 6:2, column 1:
      That the ſonnes of God ſaw the daughters of men, that they were faire, and they took them wiues, of all which they choſe.
    • 1912 February–July, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Under the Moons of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “Champion and Chief”, in A Princess of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1917 October, →OCLC, page 96:
      "It was a purely scientific research party sent out by my father's father, the Jeddak of Helium, to rechart the air currents, and to take atmospheric density tests," replied the fair prisoner, in a low, well-modulated voice.
    • 2010, Stephan Grundy, Beowulf (Fiction), iUniverse, →ISBN, page 33:
      And yet he was also, though many generations separated them, distant cousin to the shining eoten-main Geard, whom the god Frea Ing had seen from afar and wedded; and to Scatha, the fair daughter of the old thurse Theasa, who had claimed a husband from among the gods as weregild for her father's slaying: often, it was said, the ugliest eotens would sire the fairest maids.
  2. Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.
    Synonyms: pure, clean, neat
    one's fair name
    After scratching out and replacing various words in the manuscript, he scribed a fair copy to send to the publisher.
    • 1605, “The order for the administration of the Lords Supper, or holy Communion”, in The Booke of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments‎[1], London: Robert Barker:
      The Table hauing at the Communion time a faire white linnen cloth vpon it, shall stand in the body of the Church, or in the Chancell, where Morning prayer and Euening prayer be appointed to be said.
    • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, London, Observation 21, “Of Moss, and several other small vegetative Substances,” p. 135,[2]
      […] I have observ’d, that putting fair Water (whether Rain-water or Pump-water, or May-dew, or Snow-water, it was almost all one) I have often observ’d, I say, that this Water would, with a little standing, tarnish and cover all about the sides of the Glass that lay under water, with a lovely green […]
  3. Light in color, pale, particularly with regard to skin tone but also referring to blond and red hair.
    Synonym: pale
    Antonym: swarthy
    She had fair hair and blue eyes.
    • 1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature‎[3], page 200:
      the northern people large and fair-complexioned
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair, and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder.
  4. Just, equitable.
    Synonyms: honest, just, equitable
    He must be given a fair trial.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
  5. Adequate, reasonable, or decent, but not excellent.
    Synonyms: OK, okay
    Their performance has been only fair.
    The patient was in a fair condition after some treatment.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.
    • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:
      The words of these songs were either without meaning, or derived from an idiom with which Watt, a very fair linguist, had no acquaintance.
  6. (nautical, of a wind) Favorable to a ship's course.
  7. Favorable, pleasant.
    The weather was fair today.
    1. Not overcast; cloudless; clear.
      a fair sky
    2. Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed; unencumbered; open; direct; said of a road, passage, etc.
      a fair mark; in fair sight; a fair view
      • c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War:
        The caliphs obtained a mighty empire, which was in a fair way to have enlarged.
  8. (shipbuilding) Without sudden change of direction or curvature; smooth; flowing; said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces, water lines, and other lines.
  9. (baseball) Between the baselines.
  10. (rugby, of a catch) Taken direct from an opponent's foot, without the ball touching the ground or another player.
  11. (cricket, of a ball delivered by the bowler) Not a no ball.
  12. (statistics) Of a coin or die, having equal chance of landing on any side, unbiased.

pretty or attractive

light in color or pale

just, equitable

adequate, reasonable, decent

not overcast or raining of weather

baseball: between the baselines

fair (plural **fair)

  1. Something which is fair (in various senses of the adjective).
    When will we learn to distinguish between the fair and the foul?
  2. (obsolete) A woman, a member of the ‘fair sex’; also as a collective singular, women.
  3. (obsolete) Fairness, beauty.
  4. A fair woman; a sweetheart.
  5. (obsolete) Good fortune; good luck.

fair (third-person singular simple present fairs, present participle fairing, simple past and past participle faired)

  1. (transitive) To smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).
  2. (transitive) To bring into perfect alignment (especially about rivet holes when connecting structural members).
  3. (transitive, art) To make an animation smooth, removing any jerkiness.
    • 1996, Computer Animation '96: June 3-4, 1996, Geneva, Switzerland, page 136:
      Since the sequence of data contain sampling noises, the captured motion is not smooth and wiggles along the moving path. There are well-known fairing algorithms in Euclidean space based on difference geometry.
  4. (transitive) To construct or design with the aim of producing a smooth outline or reducing air drag or water resistance.
    • 1920, Technical Report of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, page 206:
      Two forward cars were provided with the model. One of these (shown detached in Fig. 1) was faired at its after end, with a view to possible reduction of head resistance, and to induce a better flow of air to the propeller.
  5. (transitive, obsolete) To make fair or beautiful.

to bring into perfect alignment

to produce a smooth outline

fair (comparative more fair or fairer, superlative most fair or fairest)

  1. Clearly, openly, frankly, civilly, honestly, favorably, auspiciously, agreeably.

From Middle English feyre, from Old French foire, from Latin fēriae.

fair (plural fairs)

  1. A community gathering to celebrate and exhibit local achievements.
  2. An event for public entertainment and trade, a market.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.
  3. An event for professionals in a trade to learn of new products and do business, a trade fair.
  4. A travelling amusement park (called a funfair in British English and a (travelling) carnival in US English).

celebration

market

professional event, trade fair

Translations to be checked

Borrowed from English fair, from Middle English fayr, from Old English fæġer, from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz.

fair (comparative fairer, superlative fairst)

  1. (colloquial, affected) fair (just, honest, equitable, adequate)
Declension of fair
uninflected fair
inflected faire
comparative fairder
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial fair fairder het fairsthet fairste
indefinite m./f. sing. faire fairdere fairste
n. sing. fair fairder fairste
plural faire fairdere fairste
definite faire fairdere fairste
partitive fairs fairders —

Borrowed from English fair, from Middle English feyre, from Old French foire, from Latin fēriae.

fair m (plural fairs)

  1. a fair (social event, type of market)
    Synonyms: braderie, jaarmarkt
  2. (rare) a funfair, carnival
    Synonyms: foor, kermis

Borrowed from English fair, from Old English fæġer, from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz, whence also Middle High German vager (“splendid, wonderful”).

fair (strong nominative masculine singular fairer, comparative fairer, superlative am fairsten)

  1. (especially sports) fair (just, honest, equitable, adequate)
    Synonyms: anständig, ehrlich, gerecht, gleich, ausgeglichen, angemessen, sauber
    Antonym: unfair
    ein faires Spiel ― an honest game, a fairly played game
    Unsere einzige Möglichkeit, fair zu sein, besteht darin, alle gleich schlecht zu behandeln.
    The only way we can be fair is by treating everybody equally badly.

Comparative forms of fair

Superlative forms of fair

From French faire.

fair

  1. (Saint-Domingue) to do
    Ly doi fair nion l'autre quichoy avant cila là. ― He should do another thing before that one.

From English fair.

fair (comparative fairebb, superlative legfairebb)

  1. fair (just, equitable)
    Synonyms: méltányos, tisztességes, becsületes, igazságos, korrekt, sportszerű
Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative fair fairek
accusative fairt faireket
dative fairnek faireknek
instrumental fairrel fairekkel
causal-final fairért fairekért
translative fairré fairekké
terminative fairig fairekig
essive-formal fairként fairekként
essive-modal fairül —
inessive fairben fairekben
superessive fairen faireken
adessive fairnél faireknél
illative fairbe fairekbe
sublative fairre fairekre
allative fairhez fairekhez
elative fairből fairekből
delative fairről fairekről
ablative fairtől fairektől
non-attributivepossessive - singular fairé faireké
non-attributivepossessive - plural fairéi fairekéi

See aire (“watching, attention”)

fair (present analytic faireann, future analytic fairfidh, verbal noun faire, past participle fairthe)

  1. to watch

| | singular | plural | relative | autonomous | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | first | second | third | first | second | third | | | | | | indicative | present | fairim | faireann tú; fairir† | faireann sé, sí | fairimid | faireann sibh | faireann siad; fairid† | a fhaireann; a fhaireas /a bhfaireann* | fairtear | | past | d'fhair mé; d'fhaireas /fhair mé‡; fhaireas‡ | d'fhair tú; d'fhairis /fhair tú; fhairis‡ | d'fhair sé, sí /fhair sé, sí‡ | d'fhaireamar; d'fhair muid /fhaireamar; fhair muid‡ | d'fhair sibh; d'fhaireabhair /fhair sibh; fhaireabhair‡ | d'fhair siad; d'fhaireadar /fhair siad; fhaireadar‡ | a d'fhair /ar fhair* | faireadh | | | past habitual | d'fhairinn /fhairinn‡; bhfairinn‡‡ | d'fhairteá /fhairteá‡; bhfairteᇇ | d'fhaireadh sé, sí /fhaireadh sé, sí‡; bhfaireadh sé, s퇇 | d'fhairimis; d'fhaireadh muid /fhairimis; fhaireadh muid‡; bhfairimis‡‡; bhfaireadh muid‡‡ | d'fhaireadh sibh /fhaireadh sibh‡; bhfaireadh sibh‡‡ | d'fhairidís; d'fhaireadh siad /fhairidís; fhaireadh siad‡; bhfairidís‡‡; bhfaireadh siad‡‡ | a d'fhaireadh /a bhfaireadh* | d'fhairtí /fhairtí‡; bhfairt퇇 | | | future | fairfidh mé; fairfead | fairfidh tú; fairfir† | fairfidh sé, sí | fairfimid; fairfidh muid | fairfidh sibh | fairfidh siad; fairfid† | a fhairfidh; a fhairfeas /a bhfairfidh* | fairfear | | | conditional | d'fhairfinn / fhairfinn‡; bhfairfinn‡‡ | d'fhairfeá / fhairfeá‡; bhfairfeᇇ | d'fhairfeadh sé, sí / fhairfeadh sé, sí‡; bhfairfeadh sé, s퇇 | d'fhairfimis; d'fhairfeadh muid / fhairfimis‡; fhairfeadh muid‡; bhfairfimis‡‡; bhfairfeadh muid‡‡ | d'fhairfeadh sibh / fhairfeadh sibh‡; bhfairfeadh sibh‡‡ | d'fhairfidís; d'fhairfeadh siad / fhairfidís‡; fhairfeadh siad‡; bhfairfidís‡‡; bhfairfeadh siad‡‡ | a d'fhairfeadh /a bhfairfeadh* | d'fhairfí / fhairfí‡; bhfairf퇇 | | | subjunctive | present | go bhfaire mé; go bhfairead† | go bhfaire tú; go bhfairir† | go bhfaire sé, sí | go bhfairimid; go bhfaire muid | go bhfaire sibh | go bhfaire siad; go bhfairid† | — | go bhfairtear | | past | dá bhfairinn | dá bhfairteá | dá bhfaireadh sé, sí | dá bhfairimis; dá bhfaireadh muid | dá bhfaireadh sibh | dá bhfairidís; dá bhfaireadh siad | — | dá bhfairtí | | | imperative | fairim | fair | faireadh sé, sí | fairimis | fairigí; fairidh† | fairidís | — | fairtear | | | verbal noun | faire | | | | | | | | | | past participle | fairthe | | | | | | | | |

* indirect relative
† archaic or dialect form
‡ dependent form
‡‡ dependent form used with particles that trigger eclipsis

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
fair fhair bhfair
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

fair

  1. third-person singular masculine/neuter accusative of for

Unadapted borrowing from English fair.

fair (not comparable, no derived adverb)

  1. fair (just, equitable)
    Synonym: uczciwy

Indeclinable.

fair (not comparable)

  1. fairly (in a fair manner)
    Synonym: uczciwie