Fey Bear
A few months after I started Bear Kilts, I discovered online that large, hairy gay men are called Bears. I shrugged and thought, "so what? It's also the animal for which I named my company."
Last week I was told by three different people that Fey also had a gay connotation, and was told I should look it up on Dictionary.com.
I did.
•••
fey
1.
1. Having or displaying an otherworldly, magical, or fairylike aspect or quality: “She's got that fey look as though she's had breakfast with a leprechaun” (Dorothy Burnham).
2. Having visionary power; clairvoyant.
3. Appearing touched or crazy, as if under a spell.
2. Scots.
1. Fated to die soon.
2. Full of the sense of approaching death.
[Middle English feie, fated to die, from Old English fge.]feyly adv.
feyness n.
Word History: The history of the words fey and fay illustrates a rather fey coincidence. Our word fay, “fairy, elf,” the descendant of Middle English faie, “a person or place possessed of magical properties,” and first recorded around 1390, goes back to Old French fae, “fairy,” the same word that has given us fairy. Fae in turn comes from Vulgar Latin Fta, “the goddess of fate,” from Latin ftum, “fate.” If fay goes back to fate, so does fey in a manner of speaking, for its Old English ancestor fge meant “fated to die.” The sense we are more familiar with, “magical or fairylike in quality,” seems to have arisen partly because of the resemblance in sound between fay and fey.
•••
That's the connection? Fairylike? It's not even used in context with being gay!
Okay, I'm not going to go on a rant about this. I'm certainly not worried about people thinking I'm gay because of tenuous etymological connections. Those people would think I was gay for wearing a kilt.
I just wish people would stop trying to warn me I might appear gay to homophobes, or to gay people, or anyone else.
I honestly don't care.
Last week I was told by three different people that Fey also had a gay connotation, and was told I should look it up on Dictionary.com.
I did.
•••
fey
1.
1. Having or displaying an otherworldly, magical, or fairylike aspect or quality: “She's got that fey look as though she's had breakfast with a leprechaun” (Dorothy Burnham).
2. Having visionary power; clairvoyant.
3. Appearing touched or crazy, as if under a spell.
2. Scots.
1. Fated to die soon.
2. Full of the sense of approaching death.
[Middle English feie, fated to die, from Old English fge.]feyly adv.
feyness n.
Word History: The history of the words fey and fay illustrates a rather fey coincidence. Our word fay, “fairy, elf,” the descendant of Middle English faie, “a person or place possessed of magical properties,” and first recorded around 1390, goes back to Old French fae, “fairy,” the same word that has given us fairy. Fae in turn comes from Vulgar Latin Fta, “the goddess of fate,” from Latin ftum, “fate.” If fay goes back to fate, so does fey in a manner of speaking, for its Old English ancestor fge meant “fated to die.” The sense we are more familiar with, “magical or fairylike in quality,” seems to have arisen partly because of the resemblance in sound between fay and fey.
•••
That's the connection? Fairylike? It's not even used in context with being gay!
Okay, I'm not going to go on a rant about this. I'm certainly not worried about people thinking I'm gay because of tenuous etymological connections. Those people would think I was gay for wearing a kilt.
I just wish people would stop trying to warn me I might appear gay to homophobes, or to gay people, or anyone else.
I honestly don't care.
