fair

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɛə/, /fɛː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɛɚ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /feː(ə)/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /fɪə/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Homophone: fare

From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“fair, lovely, beautiful; pleasant, agreeable; attractive”), 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. (literary or archaic) Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.

   Monday's child is fair of face.

   There was once a knight who wooed a fair young maid.

   • 1460-1500, The Towneley Playsː

     He is so fair, without lease, he seems full well to sit on this.

   • 1917, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:

     "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.

   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 Booke of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, London: Robert Barker, “The order for the administration of the Lords Supper, or holy Communion,”

     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,

     […] 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 as regards skin tone but also referring to blond hair.

   She had fair hair and blue eyes.

   • 1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, 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 639762314, page 0108:

     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.

   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 639762314, page 0029:

     “[…] 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.

   The patient was in a fair condition after some treatment.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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.

6. (nautical, of a wind) Favorable to a ship's course.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 563:

     I shipped with them and becoming friends, we set forth on our venture, in health and safety; and sailed with a fair wind, till we came to a city called Madínat-al-Sín; […]

7. Not overcast; cloudless; clear; pleasant; propitious; said of the sky, weather, or wind, etc.

   a fair sky;  a fair day

   • (Can we date this quote?) Matthew Prior

     You wish fair winds may waft him over.

8. Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed; unencumbered; open; direct; said of a road, passage, etc.

   a fair mark;  in fair sight;  a fair view

   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Raleigh

     The caliphs obtained a mighty empire, which was in a fair way to have enlarged.

9. (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.
10. (baseball) Between the baselines.
11. (rugby, of a catch) Taken direct from an opponent's foot, without the ball touching the ground or another player.
12. (cricket, of a ball delivered by the bowler) Not a no-ball.

• (beautiful): beautiful, pretty, lovely
• (unblemished): pure, clean, neat
• (light in color): pale
• (just): honest, just, equitable

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.
   • 1744, Georg Friedrich Händel, Hercules, act 2, scene 8

     Love and Hymen, hand in hand, / Come, restore the nuptial band! / And sincere delights prepare / To crown the hero and the fair.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:

     Here Jones, having ordered a servant to show a room above stairs, was ascending, when the dishevelled fair, hastily following, was laid hold on by the master of the house, who cried, “Heyday, where is that beggar wench going? Stay below stairs, I desire you.”

   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, III.24:

     If single, probably his plighted Fair / Has in his absence wedded some rich miser [...].

3. (obsolete) Fairness, beauty.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

4. A fair woman; a sweetheart.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Shenstone

     I have found out a gift for my fair.

5. (obsolete) Good fortune; good luck.
   • c. 1590-92, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act V scene ii:

     Now, fair befall thee, good Petruchio!

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

1. To smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).
2. To bring into perfect alignment (especially about rivet holes when connecting structural members).
3. To construct or design a structure whose primary function is to produce a smooth outline or reduce air drag or water resistance.
4. (obsolete) To make fair or beautiful.
   • William Shakespeare, Sonnet 127:

     Fairing the foul with art’s false borrow’d face, […]

• (to reduce air drag or water resistance): to streamline

• fair off
• fair up
• fairing

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

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

• bid fair
• fair and square

From Old French feire, 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. B. Maxwell, chapter 7, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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).

• fairgrounds
• funfair

• RIFA, fiar

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

• IPA^(key): /fɛːr/, [fɛːɐ̯], [fɛɐ̯]

• Audio

  (file)

fair (comparative fairer, superlative am fairsten)

1. (especially sports) fair (just, honest, equitable, adequate)

   ein faires Spiel ― an honest game, a fairly played game

   Unsere einzige Möglichkeit, fair zu sein, ist, alle gleich schlecht zu behandeln.

   The only way we can be fair is by treating everybody equally badly.

• anständig
• ehrlich
• gerecht
• gleich
• ausgeglichen
• angemessen
• sauber

• unfair

• Fairness
• Fairplay
• Fair-Use-Doktrin

• fair in Duden online

• IPA^(key): [fˠaɾʲ]

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

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