fadge

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fæd͡ʒ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ædʒ

Etymology 1

Unknown. According to Chambers, from Old English fēġan (“to join or fit together”); Liberman suggests a Middle English variant of fagot (“bundle of sticks”). Compare also Old English feċġan (“to seize, take hold, bring to”).

Verb

fadge (third-person singular simple present fadges, present participle fadging, simple past and past participle fadged)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To be suitable (with or to something).
   • 1675, [William] Wycherley, The Country-wife, a Comedy, […], London: Printed for Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC; republished London: Printed for T[homas] Dring, and sold by R. Bentley, and S. Magnes […], 1688, →OCLC, Act IV, scene iii, page 45:

     Well, Sir, how fadges the new deſign; have you not the luck of all your Brother Projectors, to deceive only your ſelf at laſt?

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To agree, to get along (with).
   • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book:

     They shall be made, spight of antipathy, to fadge together.

3. (obsolete, intransitive) To get on well; to cope, to thrive.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     I can never fadge well: for I am at such a stay, that except for health and life, there is nothing I will take the paines to fret my selfe about, or will purchase at so high a rate as to trouble my wits for it, or be constrained thereunto.

4. (Geordie) To eat together.
5. (Yorkshire, of a horse) To move with a gait between a jog and a trot.

Etymology 2

Uncertain, but potentially from or related to Old English faċġ (“flat-fish, plaice, flounder”).

Noun

fadge (plural fadges)

1. (Ireland) Irish potato bread; a flat farl, griddle-baked, often served fried.
2. (New Zealand) A wool pack, traditionally made of jute, now often synthetic.
3. (Geordie) A small loaf or bun made with left-over dough.
4. (Yorkshire) A gait of horses between a jog and a trot.

References

• “fadge”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “FADGE”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• Bill Griffiths, editor (2004), “fadge”, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Northumbria University Press, →ISBN.
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[1]
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “fadge”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎^[2], archived from the original on 2024-09-05.
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• Chambers, William (1893): Chambers's English Dictionary, Pronouncing, Explanatory, and Etymological, with Vocabularies of Scottish Words and Phrases, Americanisms
• Liberman, Anatoly: An Analytic Dictionary of the English Etymology: An Introduction

Etymology 3

Noun

fadge (plural fadges)

1. (UK, slang, archaic) A farthing (old coin).
   • 1868, Thomas Wright, Johnny Robinson, page 173:

     "Here's a fadge (farthing) or a button," I said, taking my pocket knife and cutting a few of the stitches holding the cloth and lining together, […]