faze

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See also: fáze, fázé, fazê, and fǎzé

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English dialectal (Kentish) feeze, feese (to alarm, discomfit, frighten), from Middle English fēsen (to chase, drive away; put to flight; discomfit, frighten, terrify),[1] from Old English fēsan, fȳsan (to send forth; to hasten, impel, stimulate; to banish, drive away, put to flight; to prepare oneself), from Proto-West Germanic *funsijan, from Proto-Germanic *funsijaną (to predispose, make favourable; to make ready), from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (to go; to walk). The word is cognate with Old Saxon fūsian (to strive), Old Norse fýsa (to drive, goad; to admonish).

Citations for faze in the Oxford English Dictionary start in 1830, and usage was established by 1890.

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

faze (third-person singular simple present fazes, present participle fazing, simple past and past participle fazed)

  1. (transitive, informal) To frighten or cause hesitation; to daunt, put off (usually used in the negative); to disconcert, to perturb. [from mid 19th c.]
    Jumping out of an airplane does not faze him, yet he is afraid to ride a roller coaster.
    • 1965, Catullus, translated by Barriss Mills, The Carmina of Catullus: A Verse Translation, [West Lafayette, Ind.]: Purdue University Studies, →OCLC, carminum 42, page 71:
      But we're / Not getting anywhere. Nothing / fazes her.
    • 1978, “Living in a Dream”, in On the Edge, performed by Sea Level:
      In the dreary world / That we're living in / It's fashionable / To let nothing faze you
    • 1990, “Assessment”, in Broadening the Base of Treatment for Alcohol Problems: Report of a Study by a Committee of the Institute of Medicine, Division of Mental Health and Behavioral Medicine, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, →ISBN, section III (Aspects of Treatment), pages 252–253:
      Some individuals "can't hold their liquor" and become thoroughly intoxicated on small amounts of alcohol which would not faze most social drinkers.
    • 2009, Richard Wigmore, The Faber Pocket Guide to Haydn, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 192:
      He sticks it out even further in the scherzo, fazing the listener with displaced accents, and then inserting a malicious pause just when we seem to have found our feet.
    • 2017 November 10, Daniel Taylor, “Youthful England earn draw with Germany but Lingard rues late miss”, in The Guardian[1], London, archived from the original on 28 March 2018:
      [Gareth] Southgate should be absolutely clear now that [Jordan] Pickford is not fazed by the big occasion but, on the flip-side, he might not be too thrilled his goalkeeper was involved so much.

Usage notes[edit]

The spelling phase is sometimes used for faze,[2] including by such notables as Mark Twain and The New York Times.

Alternative forms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ fēsen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 April 2018.
  2. ^ Paul Brians (2009), “faze”, in Common Errors in English Usage, 2nd edition, Wilsonville, Or.: William, James & Company, →ISBN.

Kabuverdianu[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Portuguese fazer.

Verb[edit]

faze

  1. do, make

References[edit]

  • Gonçalves, Manuel (2015) Capeverdean Creole-English dictionary, →ISBN

Romanian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

faze f

  1. inflection of fază:
    1. indefinite plural
    2. indefinite genitive/dative singular