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Cynthia vs Fay - What's the difference?

cynthia | fay |

As proper nouns the difference between cynthia and fay

is that cynthia is (poetic) the moon, personified while fay is , originally a nickname from "faith, loyalty" or "a fairy".

cynthia

English

(wikipedia Cynthia)

Proper noun

(en proper noun)
  • (poetic) The moon, personified.
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.1:
  • *:As when faire Cynthia , in darkesome night, / Is in a noyous cloud enveloped [...].
  • * 1601 , Hymn to Diana :
    • Cynthia' s shining orb was made / Heaven to clear when day did close[...].
  • .
  • * 1866 , Wives and Daughters , Chapter 10:
    • "Cynthia seems to me such an out-of-the-way name, only fit for poetry, not for daily use."
  • * 1978 , The Human Factor , ISBN 0671240854, page 59:
    • Cynthia , the domestic-minded, looked as dashing as a young commando. It was a pity that her spelling was so bad, but perhaps there was something Elizabethan about her spelling as well as about her name.

    Usage notes

    * Popular given name in the U.S.A. in the 1950s and the 1960s.

    fay

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) feyen, feien, from (etyl) . More at (l).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fit.
  • To join or unite closely or tightly.
  • * US Patent Application 20070033853, 2006:
    • Under the four outer corners of the horizontal frame platform 22 are four tubular leg sleeves 23 that are fay together one at each outer corner.
  • * Model Shipbuilders , 2010:
    • I have a strip cutter and I can cut the exact widths I need to fit, they are easy to fay together and attach very firmly to the bulkheads.
  • To lie close together.
  • To fadge.
    • Derived terms
    * faying surface

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) fegien, . More at (l), (l), (l).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (dialectal) To cleanse; clean out.

    • Etymology 3

    (etyl) faie, . More at fairy.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A fairy; an elf.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.ii:
    • that mighty Princesse did complaine / Of grieuous mischiefes, which a wicked Fay / Had wrought [...].
    See also
    * fey * fae

    Etymology 4

    Abbreviation of (ofay).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A white person.

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • White.
  • * 1946 , Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues , Payback Press 1999, p. 62:
    • I really went for Ray's press roll on the drums; he was the first fay boy I ever heard who mastered this vital foundation of jazz music.

    Anagrams

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