FAINTとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From 中期英語 faynt, feynt (“weak; feeble”), from Old French faint, feint (“feigned; negligent; sluggish”), past participle of feindre, faindre (“to feign; sham; work negligently”), from Latin fingere (“to touch, handle, form, shape, frame, form in thought, imagine, conceive, contrive, devise, feign”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mold”). Cognate with feign and fiction and more distantly dough.

形容詞

faint (comparative fainter, superlative faintest)

1. (of a being) Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness

   Synonym: dizzy

   I felt faint after my fifth gin and tonic.

   He almost fell faint due to the hot climate.

2. Lacking courage, spirit, or energy; cowardly; dejected.
   • 1789, Robert Burns, to Dr. Blacklock:

     Faint heart ne'er won fair lady.

3. Barely perceptible; not bright, or loud, or sharp.

   Synonyms: dull, wan; see also Thesaurus:dim

   There was a faint red light in the distance.

4. Performed, done, or acted, weakly; not exhibiting vigor, strength, or energy.

   faint efforts

   faint resistance

   They damned the latest book with faint praise.

5. Slight; minimal.

   Synonym: remote

   a faint chance

   • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 243b:

     do you have the faintest understanding of what they mean?

6. (archaic) Sickly, so as to make a person feel faint.
   • 1843, Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit:

     Happening to pass a fruiterer’s on their way; the door of which was open, though the shop was by this time shut; one of them remarked how faint the peaches smelled.

別の表記

• (barely perceptible): feint (for printed lines)

派生語

名詞

faint (plural faints)

1. The act of fainting, syncope.

   She suffered another faint.

2. (rare) The state of one who has fainted; a swoon.

派生語

• faintful
• faintless
• faintsome

語源 2

From 中期英語 fainten, feynten, from the adjective (see above).

動詞

faint (third-person singular simple present faints, present participle fainting, simple past and past participle fainted)

1. (intransitive) To lose consciousness through a lack of oxygen or nutrients to the brain, usually as a result of suddenly reduced blood flow (may be caused by emotional trauma, loss of blood or various medical conditions).

   A fainting fit.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 8:8:

     If I send them away fasting […] they will faint by the way.

   • 1713 September 22, Richard Steele, The Guardian, number 167:

     But upon hearing the Honour which he intended her , she fainted away , and fell down as Dead at his Feet

2. (intransitive) To lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 24:10:

     If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

3. (intransitive) To decay; to disappear; to vanish.
   • November 12, 1711, Alexander Pope, letter to Henry Cromwell

     Gilded clouds, while we gaze upon them, faint before the eye.

同意語

• (to lose consciousness): pass out, swoon, sweb, black out, keel over
• queal

派生語

Further reading

• “faint”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “faint”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “faint”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

アナグラム

• Fanti, fitna