Did the meaning of fair change?

Question

I have been reading a bunch of fiction books, such as the Lord of the Rings series and similar. They are definitely modern books, but use a literary language and constructs to give a bit of historical accents.

In these books, I've often encountered fair associated with beautiful, special, astonishing, perhaps magical. And I realized we have fairy in the language, perhaps related.

In the standard English, for me, as a non-native speaker, fair means honest, correct. We have fair coin, which is not an extraordinary coin, but merely a balanced coin.

Did the meaning of fair change over time, or is this just another use in literature?

We still use both meanings ... when we say fair weather, we do not mean honest weather, but something more like beautiful or pleasant weather. — Peter Shor, Sep 03 '20 at 11:07
Language is ever-changing and sometimes a word metamorphosizes-- Fair" turns into "foul" and "foul turns into "fair"-- This example is far-fetched, but I couldn't resist. — Tom O' Bedlam, Sep 03 '20 at 18:29
Where is 'fair change' used? Could you give us the whole sentence? — marcellothearcane, Sep 04 '20 at 05:39

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 03 '20 at 18:16

It is a long-established meaning. Part of the large etymology is:

Old English fæger "pleasing to the sight" (of persons, objects, places ...), "beautiful, handsome, attractive"; of weather, "bright, clear, pleasant; not rainy"; also in late Old English "morally good".

Referring to complexion or hair colour it is from around mid middle ages 1200, faire, in contrast to browne.
[Etymonline]

There are many other early uses too long to repeat here. At the time of writing, Etymonline is useful.

Did the meaning of fair change?

1 Answers1