feast

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English feste,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman fest, borrowed from Old French feste (now fête),^[5][6][7] from Latin fēsta (“festival, feast day, holiday, banquet”), the neuter plural of fēstus (“festive, joyful”) taken as a feminine singular.^[5][6][7][8] The OED holds that it was partly also borrowed directly from Latin fēstum, which in post-classical Latin was common as a singular noun meaning a feast day.^[5] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1113–19, already with the senses feast, celebration, feast day and celebratory meal.^[9] The Latin adjective is related to fēriae (“holidays”), the source of fair in the sense of a market,^[2][10][11] and to fānum (“temple”),^[2][11] from Proto-Indo-European *dhēs- (“holy”).^[2][8] The spelling with “ea”, for a long “e”, spread among scribes in late Middle English.^[2] The verb, Middle English festen, is partly from Anglo-Norman festir and Old French fester, partly formed from the noun.^[5][2] The same Latin word gave fête, borrowed again from French much later, fiesta through Spanish, and festoon through Italian.^[5][10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sumptuous meal for many guests, a banquet: before 1200, in a homily from a Trinity College, Cambridge, manuscript.^[5] An annual religious festival is recorded about 1200.^[5] Barnhart dates the word to probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle, with the senses feast, banquet and rejoicing.^[2]

Semantic evolution

According to Ayto, eating is a secondary development: the Latin plural meant celebrations, especially religious ones, and the underlying idea is joy, as in festival and festivity; the sense "sumptuous meal" goes back to the Latin singular festum.^[10] In Old French the word already meant a religious festival (about 1050) and festivities that often included a banquet (late 12th century).^[5] In English it meant rejoicing from about 1225, a sense now somewhat archaic.^[5] Gower used it before 1393 for a richly enjoyable experience, the sense of a feast for the eyes.^[5] From 1485 to 1656 it could also mean a festive tournament.^[5] Since 1559 it has also named a British village festival held on the feast day of the parish church's saint;^[5] the English Dialect Dictionary records such feasts in Yorkshire, the Midlands and the south.^[12] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "an entertainment of the table; a sumptuous treat of great numbers".^[13] A big meal without many guests is recorded from 1624.^[5] Weekley noted that banquet had replaced it for a ceremonial meal.^[14] The verb meant to delight or regale (about 1300), to give a feast for guests (before 1325) and to take part in a feast (about 1400).^[5] Barnhart dates the verb to probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1200 – a banquet.^[5][2]
• c. 1200 – a religious festival.^[5]
• c. 1225 – rejoicing, festivity.^[5]
• c. 1300 – verb, to delight or regale.^[5]
• before 1325 – verb, to give a feast for guests.^[5]
• before 1393 – a richly enjoyable experience, in Gower.^[5]
• c. 1400 – verb, to take part in a feast.^[5]
• 1485 – a festive tournament (obsolete after 1656).^[5]
• 1559 – an annual village festival on the patron saint's day.^[5]
• 1624 – a large, delicious meal, without many guests.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large, elaborate meal, often for many guests and to mark an occasion; a banquet.^[15][3][5]
2. A regular religious festival, such as a saint's day.^[15][5]
3. Something that gives great pleasure: a feast for the eyes.^[15][3][5]
4. (British) An annual village festival, first held on the feast day of the saint of the parish church.^[5][12]
5. movable feast: a festival whose date changes from year to year.^[15]

Verb

1. To eat a large meal with great enjoyment: We feasted on roast lamb.^[15][3][5]
2. To give a feast for someone; to entertain lavishly.^[3][5]
3. To delight or gratify, especially in feast one's eyes on.^[3][5][15]

Word family

• feaster
• feastless
• beanfeast
• prefeast
• outfeast
• unfeasted
• feast day

Related words

• festival
• festivity
• fête
• fiesta
• festoon
• fair

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b 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)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins