PERMANENT SOURCE RECORD
ALL SOURCES ↗BIBLIOGRAPHIC IDENTITYmw-feign
SOURCE
RECORD.
One work. Every claim that depends on it. No citation without a consequence you can inspect.
12 PUBLIC LINKS INTO THE GRAPH.
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historical dictionarymw-feign
Feign — Definition, Word History, and First Known Use
- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Merriam-Webster
- DOI
- Not recorded
- SOURCE TYPE
- historical dictionary
- EXTERNAL RECORD
- OPEN ORIGINAL ↗
011
CONTRARIAN TRUTH CLAIMS
RANKED REVEALS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
RANK 134GRADE Asupports
Feign once included making, not only pretending.
Middle English feynen could mean make, fabricate, or make a likeness as well as dissemble or pretend, continuing the fingere shaping family.
*dheig̑h-
*dheig̑h- → *dheigh- → *dhi-n-gh- → fingere → feindre → feign- → feynen → feign
Middle English feynen: make, fabricate, make a likeness, dissemble, pretendPublishes the older semantic range.
feign dossier ↗truth record ↗86UNVEILING
022
SCHOLARLY DISAGREEMENT
DISPUTE POSITIONS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
resolvedsupportsestablished
Did feign originally mean only to lie?
No. Its recorded Middle English field includes make, fabricate, make a likeness, dissemble, and pretend.
Middle English sense inventoryPublishes make, fabricate, likeness, dissemble, and pretend.
resolvedcontextestablished
Does feign descend from faint or feint?
No direct descent is established here. The root appendix groups them under the same nasalized shaping formation, while feign has its own documented French and Latin chain.
Feign lineage through feindre to fingereSupplies the directional history for feign itself.
035
CANONICAL RELATIONSHIP CLAIMS
EDGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
EDGE 975supportsestablished
fingere → *dhi-n-gh-
Latin → Proto-Indo-European · inheritance
- SOUND
- Latin fingere reflects the nasalized zero-grade formation *dhi-n-gh-.
- MEANING
- Molding, fashioning, making a likeness, and pretending continue the shaping field.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors · Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors
Fingere from Indo-European nasalized formationPublishes the nasalized comparative formation.
EDGE 979supportsestablished
feign → feynen
Present-Day English → Middle English · continuation
- SOUND
- Middle English feynen and feignen develop into modern feign with spelling and pronunciation standardization.
- MEANING
- Making, fabricating, likeness, and pretense narrow toward deliberate false appearance.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
Middle English feynen, feignen and first known use: 13th centuryPublishes the English forms, senses, and chronology.
EDGE 980supportsestablished
feynen → feign-
Middle English → Anglo-French · borrowing
- SOUND
- Middle English borrows the Anglo-French feign- stem with English inflection.
- MEANING
- The make, fabricate, likeness, and pretense field is retained.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
Borrowed from Anglo-French feign-Publishes the immediate borrowing stem.
EDGE 981supportsestablished
feign- → feindre
Anglo-French → Anglo-French · stem derivation
- SOUND
- Anglo-French feign- is the inflectional stem of feindre.
- MEANING
- The fashioning and pretending senses remain connected.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
Feign-, stem of feindrePublishes the stem relation.
EDGE 982supportsestablished
feindre → fingere
Anglo-French → Latin · inheritance
- SOUND
- Anglo-French feindre continues Latin fingere through Romance sound and form history; no single unattested intermediate is inserted.
- MEANING
- To shape or make a likeness develops naturally toward pretending to be.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
Feindre going back to Latin fingerePublishes the Romance-to-Latin history.
041
LEXICAL ATTESTATIONS
WITNESSES REPORTED BY THIS SOURCE
feignSOURCE-REPORTED
feign
Merriam-Webster first-known-use report
OPEN WITNESS 200 ↗050
COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE
COGNATES, DESCENDANTS, AND RELATIVES
No comparative-relative record currently cites this source.
063
GEOGRAPHIC AND TEMPORAL CLAIMS
JOURNEY STAGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
stage 1supports
Latin and Anglo-French linguistic record
Publishes the Romance and Latin stages.
Etymology: Anglo-French feindre from Latin fingere · broadstage 2supports
Medieval English language area
Publishes the medieval field and century.
Middle English sense inventory and First Known Use: 13th century · regionalstage 4supports
Present global feign senses
Supports the present pretense center against the older making field.
Modern definitions and historical sense inventory · global070
NON-GENEALOGICAL CONNECTIONS
HISTORICAL CONTEXT, KEPT SEPARATE
No non-genealogical context link currently cites this source.
081
WORD-FAMILY REUSE
DOSSIERS THAT DEPEND ON THIS SOURCE
5 entry-scoped citations map reviewed dossier paths onto the canonical claims above.