Also 3 vad, 5 faed. [a. F. fade vapid, insipid, dull, faded; according to M. Gaston Paris (Mém. de la Soc. de Ling., I. 90) repr. L. vapidum (see VAPID); cf. OF. rade:—L. rapidum, maussade:—L. male sapidum.
The great difficulty is the anomalous representation of L. v by f; the apparent parallel in OF. feiz (mod. fois):—vicem is questionable, the f in that case being prob. due to sentence-combination. The ordinary view that fade descends from L. fatuum foolish, also insipid (whence Pr. fatz fem. fade, in same senses), is inadmissible on phonological grounds; but it is possible that early confusion with this word may have given rise to the change of v into f. No OF. *vade has been found: if it existed it would explain the Eng. vade, var. of FADE v., which is otherwise difficult to account for, as the Eng. dialects that have v for f usually retain f in Romanic words. Cf. Fr. dial. (Lyons) vadou (fem. vadoussi), repr. L. type *vapidōsum.]
† 1. Of color, etc.: Dull, pale, wan, somber. Obs. exc. arch.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 318/672. Of fade [MS. Harl., No. 2277 vad] color of hard huyde.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 891. Þi faire hewe is al fade.
1393. Gower, Confessio Amantis, I. 173. The nettle … maketh hem [roses] fade and pale of hewe.
c. 1399. Political Poems (1859), II. 7.
| The day is gone, the nygth is derk and fade, | |
| Her crualté, which mad hem thanne glade, | |
| Thei sorwen now, and ȝit have noght the more; | |
| The blod is schad, which no man mai restore. |
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 1287.
| And to the Steward pleint she made | |
| With angry hert and colour fade. |
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 225.
| Thyn een … lost thay have thare light | |
| And wax alle faed in fere. |
c. 1508. Colyn Blowbol’s Testament, 23, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 93.
| An hors wold wepe to se the sorow he maide, | |
| His evy countenaunces and his colour fade. |
1854. Syd. Dobell, Balder, xxiii. 127.
| Lorn and stillest tears | |
| Grow in the fade eyes of the relict world. |
† 2. Faded, feeble, languishing, withered. Obs.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 3220.
| Of proude wymmen … þat are so foule and fade, | |
| That make hem feyrere than God hem made | |
| Wyþ oblaunchere. |
13[?]. Legends of the Holy Rood (1871), 66.
| Þare groued neuer gres, ne neuer sall, | |
| Bot euermore be ded and dri, | |
| And falow, and fade, for oure foly. |
1388. Wyclif, Ecclus. xi. 12. Ther is a man fade.
1540–54. J. Croke, Psalm CXLIII. (Percy Society), 30.
| All ben cleane put out of place, | |
| That my sowle trobled, and ben fade. |
1613–31. Primer Our Lady, 18. Our sence here fraile and fade.
1752. Berkeley, Thoughts on Tarwater, Wks. 1871, III. 493. Tar-water being made in an earthen vessel unglazed, or that hath lost part of its glazing, may extract (as it is a strong menstruum) from the clay a fade sweetishness, offensive to the palate.
ǁ 3. [mod.F. fade.] That has lost taste; insipid, commonplace, uninteresting.
Some of the early instances may be the Eng. word in fig. use of 2.
1715. M. Davies, Athenæ Britannicæ, I. 195. By those fade and unsavoury Anglo-saxon turns of thinking and speaking.
1775. Mad. D’Arblay, Early Diary, 3 April. Mr. Nesbit … is a young man infinitely fade.
1813. Mar. Edgeworth, Patron. (1832), I. xvi. 261. Simplicity had something too fade in it to suit his taste.
1824. Westm. Rev., I. 556. A picture at once crude, coarse, and fâde [sic].
1834. Fraser’s Mag., X. July, 102/1. Too often resorted by a fade and vapid style of set-speech compliment, alike removed from gallantry and good taste.
1862. The Athenæum, 25 Oct., 527/3. Mrs. Opie, with her fade and feeble sentimentality, would be unendurable to modern readers.
Hence Fadeness, Obs. rare–1. The quality or state of being ‘fade’; want of vivacity, dullness.
1837. Fraser’s Mag., XVI. Nov., 550/2. Emily … was a blonde … yet had she none of the fadeness so common to such a complexion.
