fatality 
Seven times nine, or the year sixty-three, is conceived 
to carry with it the most considerable /<Wt/. 
Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err. 
The great plague of 134!) Ml with especial fatality on 
Cyprus. ,S(wW, Medieval ami Modi-rn Hist., p. 191. 
2153 
father 
With full force his deadly how he bent, fat-hen (fat'hen), n. A name applied to various 
And feathered fatn among the mules and sumptejre .sent. pl an ts, especially to chenopodiaceous plants 
with fleshy leaves, as (,V"/""'""" album and 
C. Bonns-Henricus. In Australia a kind of in- 
Dryden. 
5. [caj>.] [L. Fatum, usually in pi. Fata; Gr. 
TAolpa, pi. MOI/XK.] In Gr. and Bom. myth., des- 
digenous spinach, perhaps Tetragonia expansa. 
ib& fatality, 
Throughout the whole army, the officers were far less 
apt to succumb to the fatalities of disease than were their 
men. The Century, XXVI. 106. 
fatally (fa'tal-i), adv. 1. By a decree of fate 
or destiny ; fey inevitable predetermination. 
All this Time King Richard lay at Nottingham, and was 
as it were fatally taken with a Spirit of Security, hearing 
that the Earl had but small Assistance cither from France 
or in England. Baker, Chronicles, p. 232. 
Yet shortly she unhappily, but fatally , 
desses supposed to preside over the birth, life, 
and death of human beings. They were three 
in number, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. 
Also called, in Latin, Parcai. 
Hapless /Egeon, whom the fates have mark'd 
To bear the extremity of dire mishap ! 
SAo*.,C. of E., i. 1. 
For thee the Fates, severely kind, ordain 
A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain. 
Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, 1. 249. 
= Syn. 1 and 2. Doom, etc. See destiny. 
4. A fatal occurrence : as, nothing could avert tiny: usually in the plural, the Destinies, god- f a ther (fa'THer), n. [Early mod. E. and dial. 
also fader (in father, as in mother, the th, for 
ME. and AS. d, is modern, appar. due to con- 
formation with brother, or with the Icel. forms 
fadhir, modhir); < ME. fader,fadir, feder, fader 
(gen. fader, etc., later/</m-s),< AS. fader (gen. 
dat. fouler) = OS. fadar, fader = OFries. feder, 
fader = D. voder = MLG. fader, LG. fader, 
vaer, var = OHG. fatar, MHG. vater, G. vater 
= Icel. fadhir = Dan. Sw. fader = Goth, fadar 
(rare: usually expressed by atta) = L. pater 
(pair-) (> It. padre = Sp. padre = Pg. pae,pai, 
father, in lit. sense, padre, father, a priest ? = 
Pr. pare, paer, paire = OF. peire, pere, F. pere) 
(see paternal, patron, patroon, padrone, etc., ult. 
< L. pater) ; = Gr. varf/p = Pers. pidar = Skt. 
pitar, father. Origin unknown ; the word has 
the aspect of an agent-noun in -tcr, -ther, Skt. 
-tar, and it is so regarded by some ; doubtfully 
referred by some to Skt. -^ pa, protect, keep ; cf . 
L. pascere, feed (> ult. E. pastor, pasture, etc.), 
AS. foda, food, fedan, ME. feden, E. feed, from 
the same root: so a ME. writer derives the ME. 
form fader, feder, from feden, feed. Father is 
one of the terms of intimate relation (father, 
mother, brother, sister, son, daughter) which oc- 
cur with slight changes of form, and occasional 
gaps in the series, in nearly all the Aryan or 
Indo-European tongues.] 1. He who begets a 
child; the nearest male ancestor: a male pa- 
rent : so called in relation to the child. 
Now by my fader soule that is deed. 
Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. 781. 
The maiden that was the doughter of kynge Leodogan 
Perish'd at sea. Middleton, Spanish Gypsy, iii. 3. fated (fa'ted), a. [</ate + -ed' 2 .] 1. Deter- 
2. In a manner leading to death or ruin ; mor- mined or consigned by fate ; doomed ; destined : 
tally; disastrously: as, the encounter ended fa- as, he -was fated to a violent end 
tally; the prince was fatally deceived. ".,__ .=-!..- *- _ 
Witness our too much memorable shame, 
When Cressy battle fatally was struck, 
And all our princes captiv'd. Shak., Hen. V., ii. 4. 
In Italy itself, agriculture, with the habits of life that 
attended it, speedily Una fatally decayed. 
Lecky, Europ. Morals, I. 282. 
fatalness (fa'tal-nes), n. The quality of being 
fatal; fatality. 
fata Morgana (fii'ta m6r-ga'na). [It. ; so call- 
ed because supposed to be the work of a fairy 
or fay named Morgana (It. fata = E. fay 3 : see 
fay 3 , fairy).} A name given to the mirage on 
the coasts of Italy and Sicily. See mirage. 
He preferred to create logical fatamortjanatt for himself 
on this hither side, and laboriously solace himself with 
these. Carlyle, Sterling, viii. 
fat-back (f at'bak), n. 1 . A local United States 
name of the mullet. 2. A local Anglo-Amer- 
ican name of the menhaden. 
fat-bird (fat'berd), n. 1. A name of the gua- 
charo, Steatornis caripensis : same as oil-bird. 
2. The pectoral sandpiper, Actodromas macu- 
lata. [New Jersey, U. S.] 
fat-brained (fat'brand), a. Dull of apprehen- 
sion; stupid. 
What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king of Eng- 
land to mope with his fat-brained followers so far out of 
his knowledge ! Shak., Hen. V., iii. 7. 
fat-cell (fat'sel), n. A cell containing fat. See 
cut under sweat-gland. 
fate (fat), n. [< ME. fate = Sp. hado = Pg.fado 
= It.fato, fate, < li.fatum, a prophetic declara- 
tion, oracle, usually destiny, fate (pi. Fata, the 
Fates; ML. fata, fern, sing., > OF. fee, > ME. 
Thereby thinks Acrisius to forego 
This doom that has been fated long ago, 
That by his daughter's son he shall be slain. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, I. 148. 
As the Greek colonies in Southern Italy came to bear the 
name of the Great Greece, so it may be that this newer 
England on the American continent in fated to be theGreat 
England. E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 25. 
2. Regulated by fate ; awarded, appointed, or 
set apart by fate. 
Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air 
B.SMK fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daughters ! 
Shak., Lear, iii. 4. 
Whereon, 
A treacherous army levied, one midnight 
Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open 
The gates of Milan. Shak., Tempest, i. 2. 
3f. Exempted by fate. 
Bright Vulcanian arms 
Fated from force of steel by Stygian charms. 
Dryden, jEneid. 
4f. Invested with the power of determining 
fates or destinies. 
The/atedsky 
Gives us free scope. Shak., All's Well, i. 1. 
with fate ; determining what is to happen : as, 
he opened the fateful missive ; a fateful contest. 
Catherine . . . was the real ruler, the fateful Power be- 
hind the throne, to whom humanity was as an open scroll, 
and politics as the Book of Might whence she the magician 
could draw her spells. Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XLIII. 826. 
Neither the cruel past nor the fateful present has 
crushed the joyousness out of Naples. 
T. B. Aldrieh, Ponkapog to Pesth, p. 138. 
2. Having the power to kill ; producing fatal 
results: as, "the fateful steel," J. Barlow. 
O fateful flower beside the rill ! 
Jean Ingelow, Persephone. 
serued Arthur vpon her kne of wyn with hir/adercuppe. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 227. 
True lovers I can get many a aue, 
But & father I can never get mair. 
The Douglas Tragedy (Child's Ballads, II. 117). 
To fathers within their private families Nature hath 
given a supreme power. Hooker, Eccles. Polity, i. 10. 
A wise son maketh a glad father. Prov. x. 1. 
2. A male ancestor more remote than a parent ; 
a lineal male ancestor, especially the first an- 
cestor ; the progenitor or founder of a race, fam- 
ily, or line: as, Ishmael was the father of the 
Bedouins of the desert. 
For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as 
were all our fathers. 1 Chron. xxix. 15. 
David slept with Ksfathert. 1 Ki. ii. 10. 
3. One who through marriage or adoption oc- 
fay, a fairy), neut. otfatus, pp. of fari, = Gr. 
</>dvat, speak: see fame*, fable.] 1. Primarily, _. . _ . 
a prophetic declaration of what must be ; a fatefully (fat'ful-i), adv. In a fateful manner, cupies the position of a male parent ; a lather- 
divine decree or a fixed sentence by which the fatefulness (fat'ful-nes), n. The state or qual- "J< otonfnihpr rf!nHon.1- 
order of things is prescribed ; hence, that which ity of being fateful. 
is inevitably predetermined ; destiny ordained fate-like (fat'llk), a. Like a fate ; deadly, 
and unalterable ; that which must be, in spite The expression of the creatures [rattlesnakes] was watch- 
ful, still, grave, passionless, fate-like, suggesting a cold ma- 
lignity. 0. W. Holmes, Elsie Venner, xv. 
fat-faced (fat'fast), a. 1. Having a fat face. 
of all opposing forces. See fatality. 
Others . . . reason'd high 
Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate; 
Fix'd/aie, free will, foreknowledge absolute. 
Milton, P. L., ii. 559. 
Yet oh that fate, propitiously inclin'd, 
Had raised my birth, or had debas'd my mind. 
Then said the fat-faced curate, Edward Bull, 
"I take it, God made the woman for the man." 
Tennyson, Edwin Morris. 
2. In printing, broad and thick-lined: said es- 
Dryden, Abs. and Achit., i. 363. " J" ' "/, ".^ i 
pecially of ordinary plain type having an un- 
There is a superiour cause to the Counsels of men which 
governs the affairs of mankind, which he [Machiavel] calls 
Fate, and we much better, the Providence of God. 
Stillingjleet, Sermons, II. iv. 
Alas ! forgotten or remembered, still 
Midst joy or sorrow fate shall work its will. 
William itorris, Earthly Paradise, II. 265. 
2. That which comes from necessity or the 
force of circumstances ; an inevitable course or 
event ; hence, fortune, lot, or destiny in gen- 
eral : as, it was his fate to be betrayed by his 
party. 
With various fate five hundred years had past, 
And Home of her great charge grew weary here at last. 
Drayton, Polyolbion, viii. 341. 
Heaven has to all allotted, soon or late, 
Some lucky revolution of their fate. 
Dryden, Abs. and Achit., i. 253. 
Each nation's glory in each warrior burns, 
Each fights, as in his arm the important day 
And all the fate of his great monarch lay. 
Addison, The Campaign. 
3. Final event; death; destruction. 
Heere runneth Halys, the end of Crcesus Empire, both 
In the site and /ate thereof. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 319. 
The whizzing arrow sings, 
And bears thy /ate, Antinons, on its wings. Pope. 
Fate steals along with silent tread, 
Found oft'nest in what least we dread. 
Cowper, A Fable. 
4. A cause of death and destruction. [Bare and 
poetical.] 
usually large face. 
fathead (fat'hed), n. 1. A labroid fish, Semi- 
cossyphus or Pimelometopon pulcher, with 12 
dorsal spines, continuous lateral line, scaly 
cheeks and opereles, and naked dorsal fin. The 
Fathead (SfmicosjyfAus or Pinttlometopon pHlcher). 
forehead of the male is extended into a fatty protuber- 
ance, and the sides of the body and the fins are often crim- 
son or red. It abounds on the California coast, and is the 
principal fish used by the Chinese. 
2. A cyprinoid fish, "the blackhead or black- 
headed minnow, Pimephales promelas, having 
a short, roundish, blackish head, it abounds in 
sluggish streams, and rarely reaches a length of 3 inches, 
but is familiar to many on account of its striking charac- 
ters and its abundance. 
fat-headed (fat'hed"ed), a. Having a fat or 
pudgy head; hence, dull; stupid; heavy-witted. 
With that cam in afat-heded monke, 
The heygh selerer. 
Lyte.ll Geste of Kokyn Hade (Child's Ballads, V. 61). 
Cases of subtlety ought not to be committed to gross 
anilfat-headed judges. Ayli/e, Parergon. 
in-law; a stepfather. [Colloq.] 4. One who 
exercises paternal care over another ; a father- 
ly protector or provider. 
I was & father to the poor. Job xxix. 16. 
"1'was virtue only (or in arts or arms, 
Diffusing blessings, or averting harms), 
The same which in a sire the sons obey'd, 
A prince the father of a people made. 
Pope, Essay on Man, iii. 214. 
While Alfred's name, the father of his age, 
And the Sixth Edward's grace th' historic page. 
Confer, Table Talk, 1. 105. 
Perchance, and so thou purify thy soul, 
And so thou lean on our ttixfatntr Christ, 
Hereafter in that world where all are pure 
We two may meet Tennyson, Guinevere. 
5. [cop.] The Supreme Being. 
Our Father which art in heaven. Mat. vi. 9 ; Luke ri. 2. 
Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of 
his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father. GaL iv. 6. 
6. [cap.] In orthodox Christian phraseology, 
the first person of the Trinity. 7. A respect- 
ful title bestowed on a venerable man; an 
appellation of reverence or honor: as, Father 
Abraham. 
Ye gentfls of honour, 
Seyn that men sholde an old wight doon favour, 
And clepe him fader for your gentilesse. 
Chaucer, Wife of Bath's Tale, 1. 355. 
And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw 
them, My father, shall I smite them? 2 Ki. vi. 21. 
You are old, Father William, the young man cried. 
Southey, Father William. 
O Tiber, Father Tiber, 
To whom the Romans pray. 
Macaulay, Horatius. 
8. A title given to dignitaries of the Roman 
Catholic and Eastern churches, to officers of 
monasteries and commonly to monks in gen- 
eral, and to confessors and priests. 
The whiche Sepultures [of the patriarchs and their wives] 
the Sarazines kepen fulle curyously, and han the place in 
gret reverence, for the holy Fadres, the Patriarkes, that 
lyzn there Mandemlle, Travels, p. 66. 
