See fairmaid in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for fairmaid meaning in English (5.2kB)
{
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fair",
"3": "maid"
},
"expansion": "fair + maid",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "fair + maid",
"forms": [
{
"form": "fairmaids",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "fairmaid (plural fairmaids)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1978, Angus Richmond, A Kind of Living, page 13",
"text": "I go down to the punt-trench and I beg the water people. Help me, I say. I throw eggs — fresh eggs — in the black water. It was to feed the fairmaids.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1980, Andrew Salkey, Caribbean Folk Tales and Legends, page 34",
"text": "The only trouble was that he had to pass a koker, and people said that at night when everyone was asleep and the moon had gone in, the fairmaids came out to sit on the koker to comb their long hair.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2001, Sargasso, page 35",
"text": "Traditionally, fairmaids transform mediocrity into genius. Goodison's female persona presents a facade of hesitancy; she appears to negate her powers: \"It is difficult at first, learning to breathe below water / to convert the lungs meant only for inhalation on earth\"",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A mermaid from a blackwater creek or river."
],
"id": "en-fairmaid-en-noun-kmDhgLPK",
"links": [
[
"mermaid",
"mermaid"
],
[
"blackwater",
"blackwater"
],
[
"creek",
"creek"
],
[
"river",
"river"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1903, William Robinson, The Garden",
"text": "Fairmaid is a soft pink flower, very pleasing.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2009, Country Life - Volume 203, page 54",
"text": "...fairmaids of February, white ladies and Candlemas bells, which surely deserved a hearing.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Ruth Binney, The Gardener's Wise Words and Country Ways, page 170",
"text": "These February fairmaids, closely linked with ancient church traditions, still grow naturally in profusion at many monastic sites.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2016, Felicity Trotman, Winter: A Book for the Season",
"text": "Many, many welcomes, February fairmaid!",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of snowdrop"
],
"id": "en-fairmaid-en-noun-SYltRAKF",
"links": [
[
"snowdrop",
"snowdrop#English"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(often with \"February\") Synonym of snowdrop"
],
"raw_tags": [
"with \"February\""
],
"synonyms": [
{
"tags": [
"synonym",
"synonym-of"
],
"word": "snowdrop"
}
],
"tags": [
"often"
]
}
],
"word": "fairmaid"
}
{
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "es",
"3": "fumado"
},
"expansion": "Spanish fumado",
"name": "der"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Corruption of Spanish fumado.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "fairmaids",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "fairmaid (plural fairmaids)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "8 19 73",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "8 29 64",
"kind": "lifeform",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Amaryllis family plants",
"orig": "en:Amaryllis family plants",
"parents": [
"Asparagales order plants",
"Flowers",
"Plants",
"Lifeforms",
"All topics",
"Life",
"Fundamental",
"Nature"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "10 17 73",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Seafood",
"orig": "en:Seafood",
"parents": [
"Foods",
"Eating",
"Food and drink",
"Human behaviour",
"All topics",
"Human",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1887, The Journal of the National Fish Culture Association",
"text": "The low prices which fish have been bringing of late years is a serious matter for those who prosecute the fisheries to look in the face. Has the taste for fairmaids died out with the Italians, or are they being supplied from other countries ?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1902, Charles James Longman, Longman's Magazine - Volume 40, page 345",
"text": "At present the only method applicable to large quantities of fish taken at one time, is that which translates the silvery, savoury little fishes into intensely salt ' fairmaids.' So saturated do these ' fairmaids ' become by the salt or brine in which they have been placed, that English eaters incontinently 'take to drink,' generously suggest their shipment to a Mediterranean port, and endeavor to restore the freshness to their mouths by a meal of red herrings.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1988, John Corin, Fishermen's Conflict: The Story of a Cornish Fishing Port, page 49",
"text": "Now the salted pilchards, known as fairmaids, were washed in a kieve, or huge wooden tray having a grating in the bottom through which the fish scales could drop.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2001, Nancy Allen Jurenka, Hobbies Through Children's Books and Activities, page 13",
"text": "Life is good for Mowzer. Tom feeds her morgy-broth, kedgeree, grilled fairmaids, and star-gazy pie.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A smoked or salted pilchard."
],
"id": "en-fairmaid-en-noun-WNWh8eaq",
"links": [
[
"smoked",
"smoked"
],
[
"salted",
"salted"
],
[
"pilchard",
"pilchard"
]
]
}
],
"word": "fairmaid"
}
{
"categories": [
"English compound terms",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English terms derived from Spanish",
"en:Amaryllis family plants",
"en:Seafood"
],
"etymology_number": 1,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "fair",
"3": "maid"
},
"expansion": "fair + maid",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "fair + maid",
"forms": [
{
"form": "fairmaids",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "fairmaid (plural fairmaids)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1978, Angus Richmond, A Kind of Living, page 13",
"text": "I go down to the punt-trench and I beg the water people. Help me, I say. I throw eggs — fresh eggs — in the black water. It was to feed the fairmaids.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1980, Andrew Salkey, Caribbean Folk Tales and Legends, page 34",
"text": "The only trouble was that he had to pass a koker, and people said that at night when everyone was asleep and the moon had gone in, the fairmaids came out to sit on the koker to comb their long hair.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2001, Sargasso, page 35",
"text": "Traditionally, fairmaids transform mediocrity into genius. Goodison's female persona presents a facade of hesitancy; she appears to negate her powers: \"It is difficult at first, learning to breathe below water / to convert the lungs meant only for inhalation on earth\"",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A mermaid from a blackwater creek or river."
],
"links": [
[
"mermaid",
"mermaid"
],
[
"blackwater",
"blackwater"
],
[
"creek",
"creek"
],
[
"river",
"river"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1903, William Robinson, The Garden",
"text": "Fairmaid is a soft pink flower, very pleasing.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2009, Country Life - Volume 203, page 54",
"text": "...fairmaids of February, white ladies and Candlemas bells, which surely deserved a hearing.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Ruth Binney, The Gardener's Wise Words and Country Ways, page 170",
"text": "These February fairmaids, closely linked with ancient church traditions, still grow naturally in profusion at many monastic sites.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2016, Felicity Trotman, Winter: A Book for the Season",
"text": "Many, many welcomes, February fairmaid!",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Synonym of snowdrop"
],
"links": [
[
"snowdrop",
"snowdrop#English"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(often with \"February\") Synonym of snowdrop"
],
"raw_tags": [
"with \"February\""
],
"synonyms": [
{
"tags": [
"synonym",
"synonym-of"
],
"word": "snowdrop"
}
],
"tags": [
"often"
]
}
],
"word": "fairmaid"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English terms derived from Spanish",
"en:Amaryllis family plants",
"en:Seafood"
],
"etymology_number": 2,
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "es",
"3": "fumado"
},
"expansion": "Spanish fumado",
"name": "der"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Corruption of Spanish fumado.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "fairmaids",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "fairmaid (plural fairmaids)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1887, The Journal of the National Fish Culture Association",
"text": "The low prices which fish have been bringing of late years is a serious matter for those who prosecute the fisheries to look in the face. Has the taste for fairmaids died out with the Italians, or are they being supplied from other countries ?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1902, Charles James Longman, Longman's Magazine - Volume 40, page 345",
"text": "At present the only method applicable to large quantities of fish taken at one time, is that which translates the silvery, savoury little fishes into intensely salt ' fairmaids.' So saturated do these ' fairmaids ' become by the salt or brine in which they have been placed, that English eaters incontinently 'take to drink,' generously suggest their shipment to a Mediterranean port, and endeavor to restore the freshness to their mouths by a meal of red herrings.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1988, John Corin, Fishermen's Conflict: The Story of a Cornish Fishing Port, page 49",
"text": "Now the salted pilchards, known as fairmaids, were washed in a kieve, or huge wooden tray having a grating in the bottom through which the fish scales could drop.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2001, Nancy Allen Jurenka, Hobbies Through Children's Books and Activities, page 13",
"text": "Life is good for Mowzer. Tom feeds her morgy-broth, kedgeree, grilled fairmaids, and star-gazy pie.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A smoked or salted pilchard."
],
"links": [
[
"smoked",
"smoked"
],
[
"salted",
"salted"
],
[
"pilchard",
"pilchard"
]
]
}
],
"word": "fairmaid"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (1d5a7d1 and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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