FIE!

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Dr. Goodword
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FIE!

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:53 pm

• fie •

Pronunciation: fai • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Interjection

Meaning: Fooey! Pooh! Pfui! An interjection of disgust or displeasure.

Notes: Interjections do not undergo normal derivation, so we are not surprised to find this one a lexical orphan. We raise it today in defense of the language against the onslaught of vulgarities used as exclamations these days. Almost all English profanities are used as interjections these days. Fie on them all! Let's return to civility and not surrender English to the vulgarians. Today's word is just the ticket we need for the journey.

In Play: Fie! will sound silly at first but then everyone will become accustomed to hearing expressions like: "Fie on all the vulgarities that befoul our lovely language and the vulgar people who use them!" Doesn't that sound much better than the other F-word? Fie may be used alone, too: "Fie! Who washed the cat and tried to dry it in the microwave?"

Word History: Today's Good Word has so many possible sources that it is impossible to trace it back to any one of them—a quandary we haven't faced before. Fi was an interjection of disgust in Latin which came down to French. However, fy carried the same connotation in Swedish and Danish, which English could have borrowed from Old Norse. We know it goes back to a sound similar to German pfui, which led to English phooey and, possibly, to Yiddish feh. The original source was an attempt to approximate the sound of spitting, a physical act indicating disgust. Does this make sense? Don't say "Phooey!" (I say 'Fie!' to all those opposing an expression of gratitude to Ralph Mowery for bringing up today's Good Word.)
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Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Sat Aug 23, 2008 1:50 am

A put-down from the Beatnik era was (or so I'm told) "Fie on thee, O Philistine!"

Stargzer goes in search of his Bongo Drums and Maynard G. Krebb.
Regards//Larry

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Postby scw1217 » Sat Aug 23, 2008 3:39 pm

Great word! I am all for putting down those "other" words, and am adding Fie! to my vocabulary. :D

On 2nd thought, the phrase from "Jack and the Beanstalk" comes to mind, "Fee! Fie! Fo! Fum!". Now that "fie" is explained I am wondering about the other 3!

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Postby Cacasenno » Sat Aug 23, 2008 5:28 pm

Pluigi Psalomone Pcalibano Psallustio Psemiramide :? or Eta Beta, the Italianized Pittisborum Psercy Pystachi Pseter Psersimmon Plummer-Push :? or Eega Beeva, used to utter pfui whenever he disapproved, disliked or distained something…. that is oftentimes.
Did the original Eega Beeva utter fie or pfie in a similar manner?
And was the original Eega Beeva also paffected by ‘pi-ism’ as his pextended pname pseems to psuggest? :)

In Italian we use the form pfui, as in German, but only rarely in the written language, mostly to mark escaping from an undesired condition (pfui, c’è mancato poco= pfui, that was close).
Fui in the spoken language (p is not pronounced) is almost as rarely used in offhanded colloquial Italian.
The sound pf does not belong to the Italian language so I just can’t say whether our pfui belongs to an old Germanism or to an young ‘Eegabeevaism’.

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Postby Stargzer » Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:22 pm

And was the original Eega Beeva also paffected by ‘pi-ism’ as his pextended pname pseems to psuggest?
Apparently so:
... Eega Beeva (full name: Pittisborum Psercy Pystachi Pseter Psersimmon Plummer-Push) is an alien human from the future from the fictional Mickey Mouse universe. He first appeared in the Mickey Mouse comic strip adventure titled The Man of Tomorrow. Since then he and Mickey have been good friends.

Mickey first encounters this strange character while exploring a cave in 1947.

... Eega speaks every word with letter "p" at the beginning.
I don't remember ever seeing this character.
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

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Postby Slava » Sun Aug 24, 2008 5:28 pm

I've never heard of him, either, but that font of perfectly accurate information called Wikipedia has an article about him.

Sounds like a rapper's name, to me.
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Fie on Goodness

Postby eberntson » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:35 am

....hummm....
Fie on goodness, fie
Fie on goodness, fie
Eight years of kindness to your neighbor
Making sure that the meek are treated well
Eight years of philanthropic labor
Derry down dell
Damn, but it's hell
Oh, fie on goodness, fie
Fie, fie, fie

It's been depressing all the way (derry down, derry down)
And getting glummer every day (derry down, derry down)
One of my favorite songs from the musical Camelot!

~E
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns

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Postby gailr » Wed Aug 27, 2008 1:54 am

Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!
Why should we in our peevish opposition
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
Fie, thou dishonest Satan!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.
Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken, your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity, and will you yet call yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, Sir John!
and so forth

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Postby sluggo » Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:33 am

"Phooey" was mayhaps my father's favourite interjection, though when he said it it always got spelt with a ph.

Walt Kelley used the apparently inverted medieval curse "A pox on you! Fie!" somewhere in his "Pogo" strip. Can't remember exactly which but it feels like Dr. Howland Owl's expression... :?:
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!


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