Spenser, Fairy Queen, 1, iv. 34.
Icetes took but a few of them to serve his turn, as if he had been ashamed of his fact, and had used their friendship by stealth.—North, Plutarch’s Lives, 1656, p. 228.
Fairy. In whatever latitude we may employ ‘fairy’ now, this Romance word is generally restricted to the middle beings of Teutonic and Romanic popular mythology; being in no case applied, as it used to be, to the δαίμονες of classical antiquity.
Of the fairy Manto [daughter of Tiresias] I cannot affirm any thing of truth, whether she were a fairy or a prophetess.—Sir J. Harington, Orlando Furioso, b. lxiii.
So long as these wise fairies Μοῖρα and Λάχεσις, that is to say Portion and Partition, had the ordering of suppers, dinners, and great feasts, a man should never see any illiberal or mechanical disorder.—Holland, Plutarch’s Morals, p. 679.
Fame. This is now generally applied to the reputation derived from the report of great actions, but was constantly used in our Authorized Version (Gen. xlv. 16; 1 Kin. x. 7; Jer. vi. 24; Matt. ix. 26), and in contemporary writings, as equivalent to report alone. Compare the distinction in Quintilian (v. 3) between ‘fama’ and ‘rumor.’
The occasion which Pharaoh took to murder all the Hebrew males was from a constant fame or prenotion that about this time there should a Hebrew male be born that should work wonders for the good of his people.—Jackson, Christ’s Everlasting Priesthood, b. x. c. xl.
And his fame [ἡ ἀκοὴ αὐτοῦ] went throughout all Syria.—Matt. iv. 24. (A. V.)
Family. It is not a good sign that the ‘family’ has now ceased to include the servants; but for a long while the word retained the largeness of its classical use, indeed it has only very recently lost it altogether.
The same care is to extend to all of our family, in their proportions, as to our children: for as by S. Paul’s reasoning the heir differs nothing from a servant while he is in minority, so a servant should differ nothing from a child in the substantial part of the care.—Bishop Taylor, Holy Living, 3, 2.