Now dial. [a. Du. fooi (in Kilian foye, voye), prob., as Kilian suggests, a. Fr. voie way, journey.] A parting entertainment, present, cup of liquor, etc., given by or to one setting out on a journey. In different parts of Scotland applied variously to a party given in honor of a woman on the eve of her marriage; to a feast at the end of the harvest or fishing season; and the like.
1496–7. Recs. Burgh Prestwick, 6 Feb. (Maitl.), 33–4. He said the said balȝeis was foy takaris, & held na courtis.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., II. xii. Hoping to enjoy you before you go, and to give you a frendly Foy.
1668. J. Gibson, Lett. to F. Wright, 24 Aug. My due deserved thanks … for ye friendly foy you pleased to giue me at our parting.
1700. Farquhar, Beaux’ Stratagem, I. i. I’ll pay my foy, drink a health to my King … and away for Hungary to-morrow morning.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xxxvii. 343. Under the notion of my foy, I slid a couple of guineas into the good woman’s hand.
1854. Miss Tytler, Phemie Millar, 175. Mr. Millar could not reconcile himself to Isabella’s foy being passed over without notice.
1856. Eliza Edmonston, Sk. & T. Shetland Isl., iv. 46. At the Foys, when the month of August ends, the time-honoured toast is—‘The Lord open the mouths of the grey fish, and hold his hand about our corn.’
1896. Mackay, Hist. Fife & Kinross, x. 196. The Foy or farewell supper before Martinmas was specially a ploughman’s feast, as he often changed places at that time.
