faint

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English faint and feint,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French faint and feint (“feigned, sluggish, cowardly”),^[4][5][6] the past participle of faindre and feindre (“to feign”),^[4][7][8] which in early use also meant to avoid one's duty by false pretences, to shirk.^[4] Anglo-Norman had the adjective from c. 1136–65 in the senses "false, sham", "weak" and "faint-hearted".^[9] The French verb continues Latin fingō (“to form, devise, fabricate”),^[5][10][11] from Proto-Indo-European *dheigh- (“to form, build”),^[5] so the word is related to feign, feint, fiction and figment.^[11][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lacking courage, spiritless, cowardly: c. 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[4][8] Barnhart dates feinte "cowardly, feigned" to probably before 1300, and the sense "weak, feeble" to about 1300, in Sir Beves of Hamtoun.^[8] Etymonline gives c. 1300 for "enfeebled; wearied, exhausted".^[5]

Semantic evolution

English first took over the French senses: "feigned, pretended" (a1340, in Richard Rolle, obsolete by 1569, though law kept faint action for a feigned one until 1818), "lazy, shirking" (c. 1325–1680) and "cowardly".^[4][7] Of these only the last survives, in faint heart and the proverb faint heart never won fair lady (mid-16th century).^[7][11][4] Out of "weak, feeble" (a1375–1764) came "half-hearted" (1596, in Spenser) and the senses of a faint impression on the senses: of a colour from 1552, of light, sound or smell from 1660.^[4][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as "languid; weak; feeble" and "not bright; not vivid".^[12] The verb, formed from the adjective, meant to lose heart from a1375 and to fall into a swoon from c. 1440 (c. 1400 in Etymonline);^[4][5] Chaucer also used it transitively, "to make faint".^[4][5] The noun meant faintness from c. 1320 and a swoon from 1808, in Scott's Marmion,^[4][5] although Merriam-Webster dates the swoon to 1792.^[2] In 19th-century American slang faint was a euphemism for drunk,^[13] and in Devon dialect it described close, sultry weather.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – cowardly; weak, enfeebled.^[4][8][5]
• c. 1320 – noun, faintness (obsolete by 1600).^[4]
• c. 1325 – lazy, shirking (obsolete).^[4]
• a1340 – feigned, pretended (obsolete).^[4]
• a1375 – verb, to lose heart.^[4]
• c. 1386 – verb, to make faint, in Chaucer.^[4]
• c. 1440 – verb, to swoon.^[4]
• 1552 – of a colour, pale.^[4]
• 1596 – half-hearted.^[4]
• 1660 – of light, sound or smell, dim, barely perceptible.^[4]
• 1808 – noun, a swoon.^[4][5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Barely perceptible; dim, pale or quiet: a faint smell of smoke.
2. Slight, weak or lacking conviction: There is a faint chance they will agree.
3. Feeling weak and dizzy, as if about to lose consciousness.
4. (archaic) Lacking courage; timid, now mainly in faint heart.

Verb

1. To lose consciousness briefly, as from shock, hunger or heat; to swoon.
2. (archaic) To lose heart or grow weak.

Noun

1. A brief loss of consciousness; a swoon: She fell down in a dead faint.

Word family

• fainter
• faintly
• faintness
• faintish
• faint-hearted
• faintheart

Related words

• feign
• feint
• fiction
• figment

Usage notes

In commerce the adjective is spelt feint for the pale ruled lines on writing paper.^[15][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press