fein

See also: Fein, fèin, féin, fèin-, and féin-

English

Noun

fein

  1. Misspelling of fiend.

German

Etymology

    From Middle High German fīn, from Old French fin, ultimately from Latin finis. See English fine for more.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /faɪ̯n/
    • Rhymes: -aɪ̯n
    • Audio (Germany (Berlin)):(file)

    Adjective

    fein (strong nominative masculine singular feiner, comparative feiner, superlative am feinsten)

    1. fine (not rough, coarse, or thick)
      Antonym: grob
      sehr feines Mehlvery fine flour
      ein feiner Sinna fine sense
    2. (dated, except in certain expressions) fine; very good; as it should be
      ein feiner Kerla fine young man
    3. refined; posh; fancy
      ein feines Restauranta fancy restaurant
    4. (often dative reflexive) too good (not willing to do something or associate with it because one thinks it beneath one) [with zu (+ dative) ‘for an act’ or für (+ accusative) ‘for someone’]
      Er ist (sich) zu fein zum Abwaschen.
      He thinks himself too good for doing the dishes.
      Er ist (sich) zu fein für uns.
      He thinks himself too good for our company.

    Declension

    Derived terms

    Descendants

    • Czech: fajn
    • Kashubian: fëjn
    • Lithuanian: fainas
    • Polish: fajny
    • Greater Polish: fejn
    • Romanian: fain
    • Serbo-Croatian: fajn
    • Slovincian: fejn

    Further reading

    Luxembourgish

    Alternative forms

    • fäin (now less common)

    Etymology

    From Middle High German fīn, from Old French fin. Doublet of dated féng (rather). The form fäin is from the uninflected stem, while féng developed before vocalic suffixes. (Adverbial féng might continue *fīne formed by analogy with such pairs as Middle High German lanc, lange or balt, balde.) The form fein cannot have developed regularly in any position and therefore must have been influenced by German fein.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): [fɑɪ̯n]

    Adjective

    fein (masculine feinen, neuter feint, comparative méi fein, superlative am feinsten)

    1. nice, friendly
      Synonyms: frëndlech, gentil
    2. fine, delicate, subtle
      Synonym: reng

    Old French

    Alternative forms

    Etymology

    From Latin faenum.

    Noun

    fein oblique singularm (oblique plural feinz, nominative singular feinz, nominative plural fein)

    1. hay

    Descendants

    Plautdietsch

    Adjective

    fein

    1. nice, good, fine

    Romansh

    Alternative forms

    Etymology

    From Latin fēnum, from faenum.

    Noun

    fein m

    1. (Sursilvan) hay

    Derived terms

    • (Rumantsch Grischun, Sutsilvan) fanar