fairy dust

English

Etymology

Based on the story of the fictional character Peter Pan, see quotations.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

fairy dust (uncountable)

1. (fiction) A magical powder that would give the power of flight to whoever it was sprinkled on.
   • 1911, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “Come away, Come away!”, in Peter and Wendy, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 54:

     Of course Peter had been trifling with them, for no one can fly unless the fairy dust has been blown on him.

2. (by extension) Any apparently magical ingredient or effect; a panacea.
   • 2011 May 19, Megan McArdle, quoting Matt Yglesias, “When Should Governments Contract Out?”, in The Atlantic‎^[1], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     It's not that some magic private sector fairy dust makes the firms all be runs^[sic] soundly. Lots of bad businesses are out there. But they tend to lose money and close.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

3. (slang) The drug phencyclidine.

   Synonym: angel dust

   • 2001, Simon Logan, I-O, Prime, →ISBN, page 102:

     This led to a certain amount of complacency on my part and certainly the fairy dust and mescaline cocktails I took day and night could only have contributed to my uncommonly satiated drive for a good fuck.

Translations

magical powder

• Finnish: keijupöly
• French: poussière de fée, poudre de fée
• German: Feenstaub
• Italian: polvere di fata
• Spanish: polvo de hadas

any apparently magical ingredient or effect

• Finnish: keijupöly

See also

• pixie dust

Further reading

• “fairy dust n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present