What does feying mean?
Feying is the present participle and gerund of the rare English verb 'fey', rooted in the old belief that certain people could be seen — or could sense themselves — to be marked for death. In its primary, archaic sense, feying describes the act or process of dying when that death is regarded as fated or imminent. By extension, it came to characterize an eerie, otherworldly gaiety or strangeness said to appear in those on the brink of death, a notion preserved chiefly in Scottish and northern English folklore and in Romantic-era poetry. The word derives ultimately from Old English 'fæge', meaning fated to die, which shares a Germanic root with the concept of fate itself. Today feying appears almost entirely in literary and historical contexts rather than everyday speech.
Dying, or behaving as if fated to die soon (archaic).
"The old woman, feying gently, called her children to her bedside."
Chiefly found in poetry, ballads, and historical fiction.
The state or condition of being fey; an otherworldly or death-marked demeanor.
"There was a strange feying about him that made the household uneasy."
Very rare; attested mainly in dialect and literary writing.
Long before 'doomscrolling', English speakers had a word for the eerie glow of someone who seems marked by death: to be 'fey' — and 'feying' was that state in motion.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of feying
Feying stems from the verb associated with the adjective 'fey', from Old English 'fæge', meaning 'doomed to die' or 'dying'. This descends from a Proto-Germanic root related to fate, making 'fey' a native Germanic cousin of ideas expressed by Latin-derived words like 'fatal'. The sense of eerie, death-presaging behavior developed in Scottish and northern English usage before entering broader literary English.
Related word forms
How feying is actually used
This word survives almost exclusively in poetry, folklore, and historical fiction; it should not be used in ordinary modern prose without signaling its archaic register.
Easily confused with feying
'Fazing' means disturbing or disconcerting someone, while 'feying' relates to being near death in an archaic sense.
'Faying' is a technical term for joining surfaces closely together (as in faying surfaces of riveted plates), whereas 'feying' concerns the superstitious state of being fated to die.