English
fad
Fad may come from Old English ġefæd ‘order, decorum’.
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English fad
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2004, Andre R. Young, Encore: “You're a fad, that means you're something that we've…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ġefædWiktionary, English fad‘order, decorum’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2004fadWiktionary, English fad. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2004, Andre R. Young, Encore: “You're a fad, that means you're something that we've…”
The story
Possibly from Old English ġefæd (‘order, decorum’) (compare Old English ġefæd (‘orderly, tidy’), fadian, ġefadian (‘to set in order, arrange’), whence Middle English faden (‘to arrange’)); or from French fadaise ("a trifling thought"; see fadaise).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- ‘protect, guard, graze, feed’
company, food, pain, father, feed, pattern, pope, foster, apparent, companion, pastor, fur, papa, patron, patriot, penetration, fodder, pasture, perpetrator, paternal, paternity, accompaniment, forage, ayr, padre, panini, patrician, pater, patrimony, perpetrate, pav, compere, pantaloons, pannier, 59 more
Today it means
noun A phenomenon that becomes popular for a very short time.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “fad”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Old English ġefæd / fad