Haven’t looked at any of the answers.
A mood or personality like a fairy, of the old kind, the scary kind. Slightly spooky and eldritch, not entirely of this world.
ETA: I’ve never heard it used to describe homosexuality.
Effeminate.
effeminate.
A lot of people so far have said “effeminate.” Is there some usage of the word that actually implies that? I’ve never heard it used to mean that, so that interpretation seems a bit surprising to me.
Ethereal looking, a bit pale, elf-like. I’ve never heard this as a description for a real person, though.
Someone with sixth sense; able to ‘see’ things in the future.
… from the other world but with a sense of being slightly evil …
WoAus in fey mood
No idea what it means… I’m guessing, shy?..
Mad. Thousand-yard-stare, pushed-beyond-endurance-or-sanity, about-to-giggle-maniacally-or-gut-you-like-a-trout-could-go-either-way crazy.
Wray.
Fairy-like, delicate, otherworldly …
But for me, myself, I most often describe a person as fey if I were rolling my eyes at what I thought was an act, like possibly about an annoying New Age-y type person.
I know it was also used to mean effeminate or homosexual. I don’t know how common that usage is now, I always associated it with those bizarre-sounding 1950s/1960s epithets like “a little light in his loafers.” I know, what?
Hmm…I’m associating it with fairy folk, but I don’t know why. If it was being used to describe a guy, I’d imagine him to be somewhat feminine in appearance and mannerisms. For a woman, I’d imagine someone quite small and slender, quiet in personality.
Camp (as in gay), but having looked at the other answers, I suspect that this may not be a “correct” meaning of the word.
Back in the day, “fairy” was slang for “homosexual,” so “fey” came to be used to mean “effeminate.”
Fey = visions in my book.
Effeminate. Never heard it used to describe a woman or girl.
Not peeking, so don’t know yet if you’ve revealed the “why” part …
It depends slightly on context.
If it’s in the context of anything that can loosely be lumped into what I think of as “English 301 class” then fey = like a fairy, where fairy is used in the classical sense of a little winged sprite or other supernatural little bug-lady of the woods.
If it’s in anything approaching daily life or pop culture, then fey = lower case tina.
Lightheartedly cheerful.
Put me down for another “Effeminate” vote.
Effeminate. Have I been misunderstanding it this whole time?