"fairy," OED 4a

Douglas G. Wilson douglas at NB.NET
Fri Jan 19 06:08:42 UTC 2007


>Regardless of the correct text in Gower, isn't the Wife of Bath's Tale a
>valid use of fairy in this sense?  "This maketh that ther ben no fayeryes."

I think it might be. But there is/was another countable "fairy" used during
the same period: OED sense 3: "magical contrivance"/etc. This also would
fit here, I think, meaning essentially "enchantment". Difficult to
distinguish between these possibilities here (at least for me). I wonder
what the OED editors think/thought.

-- Doug Wilson


--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.410 / Virus Database: 268.16.14/637 - Release Date: 1/18/2007

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list