fête

See also: fete, Fete, fêté, fetĕ, fețe, and fetë

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French fête.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /feɪt/, /fɛt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt, -ɛt

Noun

fête (plural fêtes)

1. Alternative spelling of fete.
   • 1820 September 13, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Stratford-on-Avon”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VII, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 62:

     The sexton and his companion had been employed as carpenters on the preparations for the celebrated Stratford Jubilee; and they remembered Garrick, the prime mover of the fête, who superintended the arrangements; […]

Verb

fête (third-person singular simple present fêtes, present participle fêting, simple past and past participle fêted)

1. Alternative spelling of fete.
   • 1921 October, Maxwell H. H. Macartney, “An Ex-Enemy in Berlin to-Day”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     This is not, of course, to say that the British — or even the Americans — are positively popular or fêted here.

Anagrams

• ETFE, feet, teef

French

Pronunciation

• (France) IPA^(key): /fɛt/

  • Audio (France (Paris)); “une fête” [yn ˈfɛt]:

    (file)

  • Audio (France (Toulouse)); [ˈfɛ.tə]:

    (file)

  • Audio (France (Lyon)); [fɛt]:

    (file)

  • Audio (France); [fɛt]:

    (file)

  • Audio (France (Lyon)); [fɛt]:

    (file)

  • Audio (France (Agen)); [fɛt]:

    (file)

• (France) Homophones: fait, faite, faites, faîte, faîtes, fêtes, fêtent
• IPA^(key): /fɛːt/ (older, now chiefly in Northern France, Belgium and Canada)

  • Audio (France (Vendée)); [fɛːt]:

    (file)

  • Audio (France (Vosges)); [feːt]:

    (file)

  • Audio (France (Vosges)); [fɛːt]:

    (file)

  • Audio (Canada (New Brunswick)); [feːt]:

    (file)

  • Audio (Canada (Estrie), standard); “une fête” [ʏn ˈfɛɪ̯t]:

    (file)

  • Audio (Canada (Abitibi)); [fɑɪ̯t]:

    (file)

  • Audio (Canada (Ottawa)); [faɪ̯t]:

    (file)

  • Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)); [faɪ̯t]:

    (file)

• (Canada) Homophones: faîte, faîtes, fêtes, fêtent

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-

Proto-Indo-European *-s

Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁s

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁stosder.

Proto-Italic *θēstos

Proto-Italic *fēstosder.

Late Latin fēstus

Late Latin fēsta

Late Latin fēsta

Old French feste

Middle French feste

French fête

Inherited from Middle French feste, from Old French feste, from Late Latin fēsta, from the plural of Latin fēstum.

Noun

fête f (plural fêtes)

1. winter holidays (always in plural)

   Tu fais quoi pour les fêtes (de fin d'année)? ― What will you do for the (winter) holidays? (literally, “the end-of-year holidays”)

2. party

   Synonyms: teuf, partie, nouba

   Je fais une fête chez moi ce soir! ― I'm throwing a party at my place tonight! (literally, “I'm doing a party”)

3. (Christianity) name day

   Le 18 mai, c'est la fête des Éric. ― May 18 is the name day of people named Eric.

4. (North America) birthday

   Bonne fête! ― Happy birthday!

Derived terms

• bonne fête
• Douze Grandes Fêtes
• être à la fête
• faire fête
• faire la fête
• faire sa fête
• fêtard
• fête champêtre
• fête des Mères
• fête des Pères
• fête des Rois
• fête du Travail
• fête foraine
• fête galante
• fêter
• gâcher la fête
• joyeuses fêtes
• trouble-fête

Related terms

• festif
• festival

Descendants

• → English: fête
• → German: Fete
• Haitian Creole: fèt
• → Polish: feta

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

fête

1. inflection of fêter:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “fête”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Norman

Etymology

From Old French feste, from Late Latin fēsta, from the plural of Latin fēstum.

Pronunciation

• (Jersey) IPA^(key): /feit/

• Audio (Jersey):

  (file)

Noun

fête f (plural fêtes)

1. (Jersey, Guernsey) holiday