Word Confusion: Faint versus Feint

Posted June 18, 2015 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
17 Nov 2022

A faint can be feinted, but a feint can never faint. It can cause them, though!

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end. Consider sharing this Word Confusion with friends by tweeting it.

Faint Feint

A cartoon of a woman straining food with underwear and a woman faints

A Cook Using Some Bloomers to Strain Food by is under the CC BY 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

This would cause me to faint.


A sword fight going up the stairs

Andrew Mack in The Rebel, a Broadway poster by Strobridge Lithographing Co., which is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The feint failed as his opponent countered.

Part of Grammar:
Adjective 1, 2; Predicate Adjective 1;
Noun, singular 1; Verb, intransitive 1

Plural for the noun: faints
Gerund: fainting

Third person present verb: faints
Past tense or past participle: fainted
Present participle: fainting

Variant spelling of feint

Noun;
Verb, intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun: feints
Gerund: feinting

Third person present verb: feints
Past tense or past participle: feinted
Present participle: feinting

Variant spelling of faint

Adjective:
[Of a sight, smell, or sound] Barely perceptible 1

  • [Of a hope, chance, or possibility] Slight
  • Remote
  • Lacking in strength or enthusiasm
  • Feeble

[Law] Unfounded

Lacking courage 2

  • Cowardly
  • Timorous

Predicate Adjective:
Weak and dizzy 1

Close to losing consciousness

Noun:
A sudden loss of consciousness 1

Verb, intransitive:
Lose consciousness for a short time because of a temporarily insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain 1

  • [Archaic] Grow weak or feeble
  • Decline
Noun:
A deceptive or pretended blow, thrust, or other movement, especially in boxing or fencing

  • A mock attack or movement in warfare, made in order to distract or deceive an enemy

Verb, intransitive:
Make a deceptive or distracting movement, typically during a fight

Verb, transitive:
Make a deceptive or distracting movement, typically during a fight

  • Pretend to throw a punch or blow in order to deceive or distract an opponent
Examples:
Adjective:
The faint murmur of voices called to me.

There is a faint chance that the enemy may flee.

The faint beat of a butterfly’s wing.

He was damned with faint praise.

Predicate Adjective:
The heat made him feel faint.

On receiving the news, she fell in a dead faint.

I’d better lie down; I feel faint.

Noun:
She hit the floor in a dead faint.

She slumped on the ground in a faint.

She fell down in a faint.

It was but a faint action with little hope of success.

He was faint of heart.

Faint heart never won fair maid.

Verb, intransitive:
The shock was so great that she fainted.

The fires were fainting.

She fainted on hearing the news.

Noun:
He made a brief feint at the opponent’s face.

That attack will be a feint to draw the enemy out.

The Parthian shot is an example of a feint retreat, where mounted Parthian archers would retreat from a battle, and then while still riding, turn their bodies back to shoot at the pursuing enemy.

His air of approval was a feint to conceal his real motives.

Verb, intransitive:
He feinted left, drawing a punch, and slipping it.

The boxer feinted with his left.

“Three times the panthan’s blade changed its position — once to fend a savage cut; once to feint; and once to thrust” (Burroughs, chapt 8).

Verb, transitive:
Feinting a left, I bobbed to the right.

“I made another feint at him, expecting that it would bring him at my throat; but in-stead he winced and crouched down” (Burroughs, chapt 7).

“But instead of just directly attacking the tackle’s near shoulder off the snap, Crawford disguises his intention by feinting a speed rush” (Owning).

Derivatives:
Adjective: fainter, faintest, faintish, faintingly
Adverb: faintingly, faintly
Noun: fainter, faintishness, faintness
History of the Word:
  1. Middle English from the Old French faint. A past participle of faindre.
  2. Middle English in the sense of cowardly or surviving in faint heart.
Late 17th century from the French feinte and a past participle used as a noun of feindre meaning feign.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Faint versus Feint

Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.

Apple Dictionary.com

Burroughs, Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Chessmen of Mars. 2012. Originally published in 1922. <https://amzn.to/3UP0idi>. Ebook.

Burroughs, Edgar Rice. Pellucidar. 2012. Originally published in 1915. <https://amzn.to/3hSHhba>. Ebook.

Cambridge Dictionary: faint

Dictionary.com: faint

The Free Dictionary: faint, feint

Merriam-Webster: faint, feint

Owning, John. “Film Room: 3 underrated players on the Cowboys’ 2020 roster, including the glue that holds the D-line together.” Dallas News. 3 June 2020. Web. 17 Nov 2022. <https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/cowboys/2020/06/03/film-room-3-underrated-players-on-the-cowboys-2020-roster-including-the-glue-that-holds-the-d-line-together/>. Article.

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Pinterest Photo Credits

Fainting in Providence by cometstarmoon is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. Sivkova v Heidemann 2013 Fencing WCH EFS-IN t195403 © by Marie-Lan Nguyen is under the CC BY 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

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