fain

From Middle English fain, from Old English fægen, from Proto-Germanic *faganaz (“glad”), from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“to make pretty, please oneself”); akin to Old Norse feginn (“glad, joyful”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌲𐌹𐌽𐍉𐌽 (faginon, “to rejoice”), Old Norse fagna (“to rejoice”)[1]. Compare Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌷𐍃 (*fahs, “glad”)[2].

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• IPA^(key): /feɪn/
• Rhymes: -eɪn
• Homophones: feign, fane, foehn

fain (comparative more fain, superlative most fain)

1. (archaic) Well-pleased, glad.
2. (archaic) Satisfied, contented.
3. (archaic) Eager, willing or inclined to.
4. (archaic) Obliged or compelled to.

• 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter primum, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII:

  Thus Gawayne and Ector abode to gyder / For syre Ector wold not awey til Gawayne were hole / & the good knyȝt Galahad rode so long tyll he came that nyghte to the Castel of Carboneck / & hit befelle hym thus / that he was benyghted in an hermytage / Soo the good man was fayne whan he sawe he was a knyght erraunt

• c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act II scene i:

  Men and birds are fain of climbing high.

• Jeremy Taylor

  To a busy man, temptation is fain to climb up together with his business.

• 1883, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, A Death-Parting, line 11, Poems:

  O love, of my death my life is fain,

• 1900, Ernest Dowson, To One in Bedlam, lines 9-10

  O lamentable brother! if those pity thee, / Am I not fain of all thy lone eyes promise me;

fain (comparative fainer, superlative fainest)

1. (archaic) With joy; gladly.
   • c. 1598-99, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act III scene v:

     Leonato: I would fain know what you have to say.

   • c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I scene i:

     Gonzalo: Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground— long heath, brown furze, anything. The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death.

   • 1633, John Donne, Holly Sonnets, XIV:

     Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain, / But am betroth’d unto your enemy

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe:

     The second thing I fain would have had was a tobacco-pipe, but it was impossible to me to make one…

2. (archaic) By will or choice.

fain (third-person singular simple present fains, present participle faining, simple past and past participle fained)

1. (archaic) To be delighted or glad; to rejoice.
2. (archaic) To gladden.

• an if, fina, naif, naïf

From Latin fīnis, fīnem.

fain m

1. end

From Old French foin, fein, from Latin faenum.

fain m (uncountable)

1. (Jersey) hay

• fagot d'fain (“bundle of hay”)

• faim

From Latin famēs.

fain f (nominative singular fain)

1. hunger

• French: faim

• famine

Borrowed from German fein.

• IPA^(key): /fajn/

fain m or n (feminine singular faină, masculine plural faini, feminine and neuter plural faine)

1. cool, fine, of good quality

• (Sursilvan) fein
• (Sutsilvan, Surmiran) fagn

From Latin faenum.

fain m

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Puter, Vallader) hay

• (Rumantsch Grischun) far fain
• (Puter) fer cul fain
• (Vallader) far cun fain

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Sutsilvan) fanar

fain

1. woman

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)