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Origin and history of feast

feast(n.)

c. 1200, "secular celebration with feasting and entertainment" (often held on a church holiday); c. 1300, "religious anniversary characterized by rejoicing" (rather than fasting), from Old French feste "religious festival, holy day; holiday; market, fair; noise, racket; jest, fun" (12c., Modern French fête), from Vulgar Latin *festa (fem. singular; also source of Italian festa, Spanish fiesta), from Latin festa "holidays, feasts, festal banquets," noun use of neuter plural of festus "festive, joyful, merry," related to feriae "holiday" and fanum "temple," from Proto-Italic *fasno- "temple," from PIE *dhis-no- "divine, holy; consecrated place," suffixed form of PIE root *dhes-, forming words for religious concepts.

The spelling -ea- was used in Middle English to represent the sound we mis-call "long e." Meaning "abundant meal" (whether public or private) is by late 14c. Meaning "any enjoyable occasion or event" is from late 14c.

also from c. 1200

feast(v.)

c. 1300, "partake of a feast," from Old French fester "to feast, make merry; observe (a holiday)" (Modern French fêter), from feste "religious festival" (see feast (n.)). Related: Feasted; feasting.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to feast

fair(n.)

"a stated market in a town or city; a regular meeting to buy, sell, or trade," early 14c., from Anglo-French feyre (late 13c.), from Old French feire, faire "fair, market; feast day," from Vulgar Latin *feria "holiday, market fair," from Latin feriae "religious festivals, holidays," related to festus "solemn, festive, joyous" (see feast (n.)).

fanatic(n.)

1520s, "insane person," from Latin fanaticus "mad, enthusiastic, inspired by a god," also "furious, mad," originally, "pertaining to a temple," from fanum "temple, shrine, consecrated place," related to festus "festive" (see feast (n.)). Meaning "zealous person, person affected by enthusiasm" is from 1640s. As an adjective, in English, 1530s, "furious;" meaning "characterized by excessive enthusiasm," especially in religion (of Nonconformists), is from 1640s.

A fanatic is someone who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. [attributed to Winston Churchill]

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Trends of feast

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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festival

1580s, "a festal day, appointed day of festive celebration," short for festival day (late 14c.), from Old French festival (adj.) "suitable for a feast; solemn, magnificent, joyful, happy," and directly from Medieval Latin festivalis "of a church holiday," from festum "festival, h

festive

1650s, "pertaining to a feast," from Latin festivus "festive, joyous, gay," from festum "festival, holiday," noun use of neuter of adjective festus "joyful, merry" (see feast (n.)). The word is unattested in English from 1651 to 1735 (it reappears in a poem by William Somervile,

feed

Old English fedan "nourish, give food to, sustain, foster" (transitive), from Proto-Germanic *fodjan (source also of Old Saxon fodjan, Old Frisian feda, Dutch voeden, Old High German fuotan, Old Norse foeða, Gothic fodjan "to feed"), from PIE root *pa- "to feed." Intransitive sen

potlatch

Later (1865) in sense "An Indian feast, often lasting several days, given to the tribe by a member who aspires to the position...of chief, and whose reputation is estimated by the number and value of the gifts distributed at the feast" [Century Dictionary...

bridal

"belonging to a bride or a wedding," c. 1200, transferred use of noun bridal "wedding feast," Old English brydealo "marriage...feast," from bryd ealu, literally "bride ale" (see bride + ale); the second element later was confused with suffix -al (...

junket

The English word shifted meaning by 1520s to "feast, banquet," probably via the notion of a picnic basket; this led to extended...Johnson (1755) also records a verb junket "to feast secretly; to make entertainments by stealth."...

yule

English geol, geola "Christmas Day, Christmastide," which is cognate with Old Norse jol (plural), the name of a heathen feast...After conversion to Christianity the word narrowed to mean "the 12-day feast of the Nativity" (which began Dec. 25), but...

host

"person who receives guests," especially for pay, late 13c., from Old French oste, hoste "guest, host, hostess, landlord" (12c., Modern French hôte), from Latin hospitem (nominative hospes) "guest, stranger, sojourner, visitor (hence also 'foreigner')," also "host; one bound by t

banquet

late 15c., "feast, sumptuous entertainment," from Old French banquet "feast," earlier simply "small bench," from Old Italian banchetto, diminutive of banco "bench," variant of banca "bench," which is from a Germanic source (see bench (n.)). Apparently, etymologically, "a snack ea

gaudy

"showy, tastelessly rich," c. 1600; earlier "joyfully festive" (1580s), probably a re-adjectivizing of gaudy (n.) "large, ornamental bead in a rosary" (early 14c.) via the noun gaud + -y (2.). In early Modern English it also could mean "full of trickery" (1520s). Or possibly the

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