fain

• faine (obsolete)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

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

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

fain (comparative more fain, superlative most fain)(archaic)

1. Well-pleased, glad.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. Satisfied, contented.
   • 1883, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, A Death-Parting, line 11, Poems‎:

     O love, of my death my life is fain,

3. Eager, willing or inclined to.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 125, column 2:

     Man and Birds are fayne of climbing high.

   • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC:

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

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 223:

     She who would fain give the starry worlds to the object of her affection—it is a fine and beautiful pride which makes her shrink from aught of benefit from him.

4. Obliged or compelled to.

• 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;

• (eager): eager, keen, raring
• (ready, willing): lief

• (antonym(s) of “eager”): loath, averse, disinclined, reluctant, unwilling

From Middle English fain, fayn, feyn, from the adjective (see above).

fain (comparative fainer, superlative fainest)(archaic)

1. With joy; gladly.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 113, column 2:

     Leonato: I would faine know what you haue to ſay.

   • 1633, John Donne, Holly Sonnets, section XIV:

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

   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:

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

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter XXV, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     ["]Fain would I add to my beauty and my length of days if that be possible.["]

   • 1891, George Du Maurier, Peter Ibbetson‎:

     […] and fain would I inhale it in all its pristine fulness and vigour.

   • 1923, Anthony Ludovici, “The Positive Man and the Positive Woman”, in Woman; A Vindication, London: Constable:

     As a matter of fact, although Woman means everything to Man’s sexuality, and is the embodiment of all that his reproductive instinct can desire, even when it is at its keenest, Man means very little to Woman. He is, after all, no more than the sparking-plug that sets an elaborate process going, and the brief moment in which his share in her business is accomplished, and the incomplete pleasure it affords her, are ridiculously insignificant when compared with the importance he himself would fain attach to them.

2. By will or choice.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 1:

     Gonzalo: Now would I giue a thouſand furlongs of Sea, for an Acre of barren ground: Long heath, Browne firrs, any thing; the wills aboue be done, but I would faine dye a dry death.

• lief

From Middle English fainen, from Old English fæġnian, from Proto-West Germanic *faginōn, from Proto-Germanic *faginōną. Doublet of fawn.

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.
3. (Germanic paganism) to worship, to celebrate, to offer an oblation which is not sacrificial blót.

• an if, fina, naif, naïf

From Latin fīnis, fīnem.

fain m

1. end

From Old English fæġen, from Proto-West Germanic *fagan (“glad”). The adverb is transferred from the adjective.

• IPA^(key): /fɛi̯n/

fain

1. joyful, happy
2. willing, eager
3. pleasing, enjoyable, attractive

• fagen, vain, fawe, fawen, vawe, fein, fane, fayn, fayne, vayn, feyn

fain

1. gladly, joyfully
2. willingly, eagerly

• fayn, faȝe, fawe, fawen, vawe, fene, vain, vayn, vein, veyn, vane, wane

• English: fain
• Scots: fain

• “fain, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “fain, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Old French foin, from earlier fein, from Latin fēnum, from faenum.

fain m (uncountable)

1. (Jersey) hay

• fagot d'fain (“bundle of hay”)

• faim

From Latin famēs.

fain oblique singular, f (nominative singular fain)

1. hunger

• famine

• French: faim

Borrowed from German fein.

• IPA^(key): /fajn/

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

1. (Transylvania) cool, fine, of good quality

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

From Latin fēnum, from 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)