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Few vs Fey - What's the difference?

few | fey |

As a determiner few

is an indefinite, but usually small, number of.

As a pronoun few

is few people, few things.

As a proper noun Few

is the pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain.

As an adjective fey is

about to die; doomed; on the verge of sudden or violent death.

As a noun fey is

fairy folk collectively.

few

English

Determiner

  • (preceded by another determiner) An indefinite, but usually small, number of.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= A new prescription , passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}
    I was expecting lots of people at the party, but very few''''' (=''almost none'') ''turned up.   Quite a '''few''' of them'' (=''many of them'') ''were pleasantly surprised.   I don't know how many drinks I've had, but I've had a '''few . [This usage is likely ironic.]
  • (used alone) Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of.
  • (meteorology, of clouds) (US?) Obscuring one eighth to two eighths of the sky.
    • NOAA definition of the term "few clouds": An official sky cover classification for aviation weather observations, descriptive of a sky cover of 1/8 to 2/8. This is applied only when obscuring phenomenon aloft are present--that is, not when obscuring phenomenon are surface-based, such as fog.
  • (meteorology, of rainfall with regard to a location) (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.

    • Usage notes

    * (term) is used with plural nouns only; its synonymous counterpart (little) is used with nouns. * Although indefinite in nature, a few is usually more than two (two often being referred to as "a couple of"), and less than "several". If the sample population is say between 5 and 20, a few would mean three or four, but no more than this. However, if the population sample size were in the millions, "a few" could refer to several hundred items. In other words, few'' in this context means ''a very very small percentage but way over the 3 or 4 usually ascribed to it its use with much much smaller numbers. : (term) is grammatically affirmative but semantically negative, and it can license negative polarity items. For example, lift a finger usually cannot be used in affirmative sentences, but can be used in sentences with (term). *: He didn't lift a finger to help us. *: *He lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical) *: Few people lifted a finger to help us. *: *A few people lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical) *: *Fewer people lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical)

    Synonyms

    * little (see usage)

    Antonyms

    * many

    Derived terms

    * a few * quite a few

    Related terms

    * paucity * poor

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • Few people, few things.
    • Many are called, but few are chosen.

    Antonyms

    * many

    References

    * Meteorology (both senses) *: NOAA Glossary: f

    Statistics

    * 200 English basic words English indefinite pronouns 1000 English basic words

    fey

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . More at (l).

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (dialectal, or, archaic) About to die; doomed; on the verge of sudden or violent death.
  • (obsolete) Dying; dead.
  • (chiefly, Scottish) possessing second sight, clairvoyance, or clairaudience
  • overrefined, affected
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , date=2006-01-01 , year= , month= , first= , last= , author=Jennifer Drapkin , coauthors= , title=Wrestling with Fame , volume=39 , issue=1 , page=50 , magazine=Psychology Today , publisher= , issn= citation , passage=Hoffman does not rely on his talent to carry him through a role. He spent five and a half months transmuting himself into Capote. … He lost 40 pounds and practiced the inscrutable voice and fey mannerisms for an hour or two every day. }}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=2009 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=Robert Cohen , title=Amateur Barbarians , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=Simon and Schuster , isbn=9780743230360 , page=16 , passage=He'd stand at the board making jokes the kids didn't understand, improvising fey little couplets of dactylic verse. }}
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , date= , year=2009 , month=Oct/Nov , first= , last= , author=Lucius Shepard , coauthors= , title=Halloween Town , volume=117 , issue=3/4 , page=129 , magazine=Fantasy and Science Fiction , publisher= , issn= , url= , passage= … he did not tell Mary Alonso, who had taken Dell's place as a source of gossip and information, and with whom he went out for drinks on occasion, usually along with Mary's partner, Roberta, a fey , freckly, dark-haired girl, … }}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=2011 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=Héctor Tobar , title=The Barbarian Nurseries , chapter= , url= , genre= , publisher=Farrar, Straus, and Giroux , isbn=9780374708931 , page= , passage=Guadalupe was a fey mexicana with long braids and a taste for embroidered Oaxacan blouses and overwrought indigenous jewelry, and also a former university student like Araceli. }}
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , date= , year=2012 , month=Apr , first= , last= , author= , coauthors= , title=Field Guide: The Club Rules , volume= , issue= , page= , magazine=Town and Country , publisher= , issn= , url= , passage=Bespoke designer Kirk Miller, who offers a contemporary version at his Soho atelier, says, "A club collar shows that a man pays attention to detail. It's a simple way to communicate elegance." And please don't call it a Peter Pan, the club's fey sister. }}
  • * {{quote-web
    • , date= , year=2012 , first= , last= , author=Jeffery Goldberg , authorlink= , title=What's Your Problem , site=The Atlantic Montly citation , archiveorg= , accessdate=2012-09-17 , passage=Most Ivy League graduates are unaccustomed to pepper spray; perhaps he should spray himself in the face once or twice, to test his tolerance. He should also resist the urge to bring high-end camping equipment to protests—this will make him look fey and elitist. }}
  • Strange or otherworldly.
  • Spellbound.

    • Derived terms

    * (l)

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) faie, . More at fairy.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Magical or fairylike.

    • Noun

    (-)
  • Fairy folk collectively.

    • See also

    * fay * fae ----