Fey ***

fey







Yahoo!奇摩字典



a. (形容詞 adjective)



          1.    【蘇格蘭】注定該死的;垂死的

          2.    (臨死前)異常興奮的





The Columbia Guide to Standard American English



fey, fay (adjs.)   

 

These homophones (pronounced FAI) in different ways mean“not of this world”but are in all other respects dissimilar.



Fey has a general meaning of“able to see the future,”“otherworldly,”and so by extension,“demented,”“touched in the head”: Mediums often behave in peculiarly fey ways. 



There is also an older and mainly Scottish sense of fey meaning“with second sight, especially of deaths and disasters,”and sometimes this sense occurs in literary contexts today: The old vagrant claimed to be fey, and he regularly predicted the end of the world. 



Fay means“elfin,”“elflike,” as in The little children were dressed like elves and fairies and danced about in a mode their teacher apparently considered fay. See FAIRY. 





Cate Blanchett: Queen of the screen (1)



Nobody would be as crudely sexist today about Blanchett, yet she has been criticised for her adventurous choices of role. She never plays bland or wholly likeable types. She is not going to be the girl-next-door or the deferential wife. Sometimes, her sheer force of personality can count against her; in Richard Eyre's Notes on a Scandal, though she gives a typically intelligent, nuanced performance, you simply can't believe in such a strong actress playing the weak-willed and fey Sheba, the north London mum and teacher who begins an affair with a teenage schoolboy.