fiance

See also: fiancé and fiancée

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fiˈɑnseɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

fiance (plural fiances)

1. Alternative spelling of fiancé

Etymology 2

From French fiancer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaɪ.əns/

Verb

fiance (third-person singular simple present fiances, present participle fiancing, simple past and past participle fianced)

1. (obsolete) To betroth; to affiance.
   • 1569, Thomas Stocker, A righte noble and pleasant history of the successors of Alexander surnamed the Great:

     he […] therfore fianced he his daughter

   • 1993, Cindy Holbrook, A Daring Deception, page 91‎^[1]:

     he should become so lusty over a lady of such questionable motives? He was fianced, after all. Perhaps that was it. Since his engagement, he had abstained from any liaisons, feeling it was only proper in a man soon to be married

Anagrams

• fancie

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fjɑ̃s/
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle French fiance, from Old French fiance, from fier +‎ -ance.

Noun

fiance f (plural fiances)

1. (obsolete) faith; confidence

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

fiance

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

Further reading

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

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French < fier +‎ -ance or Latin fidentia.

Noun

fiance f (plural fiances)

1. faith; confidence

Synonyms

• foy

Old French

Alternative forms

• fïance (occasional scholarly form)

Etymology

From the verb fier +‎ -ance or from Latin fidentia.

Noun

fiance oblique singular, f (oblique plural fiances, nominative singular fiance, nominative plural fiances)

1. faith; confidence
   • c. 1150, Turoldus, La Chanson de Roland:

     En tels vassals deit hom aveir fiance !

     In such knights a man must have confidence!

Synonyms

• foi