"fairy," OED 4a

[Baker, John]

        Well, The Century Dictionary thinks Chaucer meant the imaginary
being sense, not that that proves anything.  I assume that the OED
considered and rejected this possibility; whatever else their reading
may have missed, I'm sure they scoured the Canterbury Tales.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Douglas G. Wilson
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 1:09 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "fairy," OED 4a

>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

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