Etymograph

English

faze

Faze comes from English feese ‘to alarm, discomfit, frighten’, from Middle English fēsen ‘to chase, drive away’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent- ‘to go’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pent-1‘to go’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*funsijaną1‘to predispose, make favourable’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*funsijan1‘to make ready to go’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150fēsan1‘to send forth’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fēsen1‘to chase, drive away’
  6. English1500–presentfeese1‘to alarm, discomfit, frighten’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1965faze1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English faze, which cites OED
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1965, Catullus, The Carmina of Catullus: A Verse Translation: “But we're / Not getting anywhere. Nothing / fazes…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pent-Wiktionary, English faze, which cites OED‘to go’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*funsijanąWiktionary, English faze, which cites OED‘to predispose, make favourable’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*funsijanWiktionary, English faze, which cites OED‘to make ready to go’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150fēsanWiktionary, English faze, which cites OED‘to send forth’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500fēsenWiktionary, English faze, which cites OED‘to chase, drive away’
  6. English1500–presentfeeseWiktionary, English faze, which cites OED‘to alarm, discomfit, frighten’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1965fazeWiktionary, English faze, which cites OED. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1965, Catullus, The Carmina of Catullus: A Verse Translation: “But we're / Not getting anywhere. Nothing / fazes…”

The story

The word is cognate with Old Saxon fūsian (‘to strive’), Old Norse fýsa (‘to drive, goad; to admonish’). Citations for faze in the Oxford English Dictionary start in 1830, and usage was established by 1890.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pent- ‘to go’

find, path, patrol, pad, pontiff, sputnik, pontoon, pontifical, pons, pontifex, 14 more

Today it means

verb To frighten or cause hesitation; to daunt, put off (usually used in the negative); to disconcert, to perturb.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “faze”. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *pent- / faze

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