fair

adj

Etymology: From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”). See also peace.

1. Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.

   “Monday's child is fair of face.”

   “There was once a knight who wooed a fair young maid.”

2. Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.

   “one's fair name”

   “After scratching out and replacing various words in the manuscript, he scribed a fair copy to send to the publisher.”

3. Light in color, pale, particularly with regard to skin tone but also referring to blond and red hair.

   “She had fair hair and blue eyes.”

   “the northern people large and fair-complexioned”

4. Just.

   “He must be given a fair trial.”

   ““[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.””

5. Adequate, reasonable, or decent, but not excellent.

   “Their performance has been only fair.”

   “The patient was in a fair condition after some treatment.”

6. Favorable to a ship's course.

   “I shipped with them and becoming friends, we set forth on our venture, in health and safety; and sailed with a fair wind, till we came to a city called Madínat-al-Sín; […]”

7. Favorable, pleasant.

   “The weather was fair today.”

8. Favorable, pleasant.

   “a fair sky”

   “They had good weather and tolerably fair winds, and before they entered the Straits of Magellan the captain had formulated a plan for the disposition of Garta.”

9. Favorable, pleasant.

   “a fair mark;  in fair sight;  a fair view”

   “The caliphs obtained a mighty empire, which was in a fair way to have enlarged.”

10. Without sudden change of direction or curvature; smooth; flowing; said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces, water lines, and other lines.
11. Between the baselines.
12. Taken direct from an opponent's foot, without the ball touching the ground or another player.
13. Not a no ball.
14. Of a coin or die, having equal chance of landing on any side, unbiased.

    “A fair coin has a 50% chance of landing on heads.”

adv

Etymology: From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”). See also peace.

1. Clearly, openly, frankly, civilly, honestly, favorably, auspiciously, agreeably.
2. Almost; to a great extent but not literally.

   “"I'm fair moidered to know what to do wid him," she confessed to the rosy-cheeked Bridget one day.”

   “"I just want to get me blasted boots off and soak me poor feet, they're fair killing me, what with chilblains and corns, me toes are fair screaming."”

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English feyre, from Old French foire, from Latin fēriae.

1. A community gathering to celebrate and exhibit local achievements.
2. An event for public entertainment and trade, a market.

   “The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.”

3. An event for professionals in a trade to learn of new products and do business, a trade fair.
4. A travelling amusement park (called a funfair in British English and a (travelling) carnival in US English).

verb

Etymology: From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”). See also peace.

1. To smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).
2. To bring into perfect alignment (especially about rivet holes when connecting structural members).
3. To make an animation smooth, removing any jerkiness.

   “Since the sequence of data contain sampling noises, the captured motion is not smooth and wiggles along the moving path. There are well-known fairing algorithms in Euclidean space based on difference geometry.”

4. To construct or design with the aim of producing a smooth outline or reducing air drag or water resistance.

   “Two forward cars were provided with the model. One of these (shown detached in Fig. 1) was faired at its after end, with a view to possible reduction of head resistance, and to induce a better flow of air to the propeller.”

5. To make fair or beautiful.

   “Fairing the foul with art’s false borrow’d face”

6. To become fair (favorable, not stormy).

   “[The] weather faired, and toward midday we were again facing the fringe of breakers from the cliffs.”

   “... weather "faired off" next morning, and we were not a bit sorry to mark time for a couple of days while the water went down.”