fey

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The Word of the Day for February 15 is:

fey   \FAY\   adjective 
     1 a chiefly Scottish : fated to die : doomed  b : marked 
by a foreboding of death or calamity
     2 a : able to see into the future : visionary  b : marked 
by an otherworldly air or attitude  c : crazy, touched
     3 a : excessively refined : precious  *b : quaintly 
unconventional : campy

Example sentence:
     "Smocked silver jersey skirts came with frills and had a 
fey allure, as did the silver tennis dress and ruffled black 
chiffon dress trimmed with satin." (_WWD_, October 8, 2004)

Did you know?
     "Fey" is a word that defies its own meaning, since it has 
yet to even come close to the brink of death after being in our 
language for well over 800 years. In Old and Middle English it 
meant "feeble" or "sickly." Those meanings turned out to be fey 
themselves, but the word lived on in senses related to death, 
and because a wild or elated state of mind was once believed to 
portend death, other senses arose from these. The word "fay," 
meaning "fairy" or "elf" may also have had an influence on some 
senses of "fey." Not until the late 20th century did the word's 
most recent meanings, "precious" and " campy," find their way 
onto the pages of the dictionary.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.