Meanings & Definitions

[putnamwitches]

The Spanish word hada comes from the Latin fata which, in turn, derived from fatum, meaning fate or destiny. In the Middle Ages, it was defined by the gentiles as a divinity or unknown force which had a fascinatig effect on the other divinities and on men and events. The French word fée has a similar origin and resulted in the English words fey and fairie which, as time went by, suffered spelling variations from fayerye, fayre, faerie, faery, and fairy. According to its ethimology, it is a fantastic being pictured as a woman known to have magical powers. For the Saxons, the word ferie refers to the world of fairies as an entity, being a geographical location. In Spanish it turned out to be féerico, depicting something wonderful or fantastic, as applied for example to música féerica (fairy music).