fey

Etymology 1

From Middle English fey (“fated to die”), from Old English fǣġe (“doomed to die, timid”), from Proto-Germanic *faigijaz (“cowardly, wicked”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyk- (“ill-meaning, bad”). Akin to Old Saxon fēgi, whence Dutch veeg (“doomed, near death”), Old High German feigi (“appointed for death, ungodly”) whence German feige (“cowardly”), Old Norse feigr (“doomed”) whence the Icelandic feigur (“doomed to die”), Old English fāh (“outlawed, hostile”). More at foe.

adj

1. (dialectal, archaic or poetic) About to die; doomed; on the verge of sudden or violent death.
   Then Fëanor laughed as one fey, and he cried: “None and none! What I have left behind I count now no loss; needless baggage on the road it has proved. Let those that cursed my name, curse me still, and whine their way back to the cages of the Valar! Let the ships burn!” 1977, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
   Surely the Gods have made him fey, having ordained his destruction and our humbling before these Demons. 1922, E. R. Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros
2. (obsolete) Dying; dead.
3. (chiefly Scotland, Ireland) Possessing second sight, clairvoyance, or clairaudience.
4. Overrefined, affected.
   His interlocutor was whimsical if not downright fey. He pushed his spectacles to the top of his nose. He shoved them into his greying locks like an effeminate racing driver. He gave Pym sherry and put a hand on his backside in order to propel him to a long window that gave on to a row of council houses. 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
   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. 2006-01-01, Jennifer Drapkin, “Wrestling with Fame”, in Psychology Today, volume 39, number 1, page 50
   He'd stand at the board making jokes the kids didn't understand, improvising fey little couplets of dactylic verse. 2009, Robert Cohen, Amateur Barbarians, Simon and Schuster, page 16
   … 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, … 2009 Oct/Nov, Lucius Shepard, “Halloween Town”, in Fantasy and Science Fiction, volume 117, number 3/4, page 129
   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. 2011, Héctor Tobar, The Barbarian Nurseries, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
   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. 2012 Apr, “Field Guide: The Club Rules”, in Town and Country
   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. 2012, Jeffery Goldberg, “What's Your Problem”, in The Atlantic Monthly, retrieved 2012-09-17
5. Strange or otherworldly.
   Gratefully she crooned with them, so inimitably that old Christine Inglis, on her way to early Mass, vowed the girl was fey. 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 186
6. Spellbound.

Etymology 2

From Middle English faie, fei (“a place or person possessed with magical properties”), from Middle French feie, fee (“fairy", "fae”). More at fairy.

adj

1. Magical or fairylike.

noun

1. Fairy folk collectively.