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 Cook Using Some Bloomers to Strain Food by Fæ is under the CC BY 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — This would cause me to faint.	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:
Middle English from the Old French faint. A past participle of faindre. 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!

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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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