Forms: 4–5 feire, feyre, 4–7 faire, fayre, 5–6 fayer (6 faier), 5–7 fare, 7– fair. [a. OF. feire (mod.F. foire) = Pr. feira, fiera, fieyra, Sp. fería, Pg. feira, It. fiera:—Lat. fēria holiday.]
1. A periodical gathering of buyers and sellers, in a place and at a time ordained by charter or statute or by ancient custom. (In many cases fairs are resorted to for pleasure-seeking as well as for business; and in England they sometimes survive merely as gatherings for pleasure.) Often modified by prefixing other words, indicating the things sold, the time of year, or some special object for which the fair is held; as cattle-, cheese-, horse-, ram-, sheep-, etc., fair-, Easter-, Michaelmas-, summer-fair.
[1292. Britton, I. xiv. § 3. Qe il facent crier la pes de eux en citez et en burgs et en feyres et en marchez.]
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 328. In feire and markette þei salle seke him oute.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VII. 211.
| To wy and to winchestre · ich wente to þe faire | |
| With many [maner] marchandises · as my [maister] heghte. |
1489. Ld. Treas. Accts. Scot. (1877), I. 119. A blak horss boycht be Master Wilȝeam Knollis in the fayre.
1548. Hall, Chron., 122 b. The faier, on the day of Sainct Michaell the Archangell, kepte in … the toune of Caen.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., 12. To neglect a great faire, and to seeke to make markets aftewards.
1686. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., I. 181. Ye freemen … of New Castle … Requesting a Fare to be kept in yt Towne twice a year.
1764. Foote, Mayor of G., II. i. Mrs. Sneak. Why has he not gone and made himself the fool of the fair?
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), III. 272. Where the King grants a fair or market, the grantee shall have, without any words to that purpose, a court of record.
1841. M. Elphinstone, The History of India, I. 327. Each has its market day, and its annual fairs and festivals.
1857. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 315. I am so grieved to find the fair, which used to be held to-day, has turned into a mere cattle-fair; no booths with toys and sweeties!
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 145. There was no fair now. The summer fair had long gone by, and the ‘t’Andra fair,’ so called because it begun on the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, would not come round for many weeks to come.
b. phr. A day after the fair: too late.
1548. Hall, Chron., 218 b. A daie after the faire, as the commen proverbe saieth.
1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, III. i. You came a day after the fair.
1882. P. Fitzgerald, Recreat. Lit. Mag. (1883), 55. It … would be the day after the fair.
c. transf. Applied to a ‘bazaar’ or collection of goods to be sold to raise money for a charitable purpose. Chiefly in fancy-fair (see FANCY v. 1 d), church-fair (U.S.).
1876. W. A. Butler, Mrs. Limber’s Raffle, i. 18. A church fair, or any fair, in fact, always seems to me like a contrivance to get a great deal of money for very little value.
2. attrib. and Comb., as fair-booth, -day, -ground, place, -stead, -time, -town; fair-like adj.; fair-going a., going to a fair; fair-keeper, (a) one who has a stall, etc., at a fair; (b) an officer charged with the maintenance of order at a fair.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 385. On the village-green stand moss-grown *fair-booths.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 431. He … tooke the towne of Peples on their *fayre day.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgr., 122. The Prince of Princes himself, when here, went through this Town to his own country, and that upon a Fair-day too.
1771. Wesley, Jrnl., 18 June. It being the fair-day, there was a numerous congregation.
1801. Bloomfield, Rural T. (1802), 6. Many a kind *Fair-going face.
1851. Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Windows, 123.
| Just now, the world is busy: it has grown | |
| A Fairgoing world. |
1881. Echo, 9 July, 3/1. The Munster pig buyers have peremptorily refused to buy on the *fair-ground of Sir Henry Becher.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4398/3. The *Fairkeepers resorting to the Two Fairs held in … Bristol.
1864. A. M‘Kay, The History of Kilmarnock, 106. The guard, or ‘Fair keepers,’ as they were termed, were supplied with ale, &c., at the expense of the town.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., II. 21/2. The … *fairlike markets … kept in Dublin.
1794. Sporting Mag., V. Oct., 39/2. A battle was fought in the *fair-place, by a fellow with a wooden leg, that had been begging as a maimed sailor, and a shoe-maker of this town, who had affronted the sturdy beggar, by refusing to bestow a charitable boon upon him.
1657. Reeve, God’s Plea, 166. Merchandize … is the Nations Head-servant … sent out to all the earth, as to a generall Market, and *fairstead to buy her provisions.
1467. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 384. In the *feyre tyme, ij.d.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 122 a. Camelford, a market and *Fayre (but not faire) towne.
