"socialist," 1884, from Fabian Society, founded in Britain 1884, named for Quintus Fabius Maximus (surnamed Cunctator "the Delayer"), the cautious tactician who opposed Hannibal in the Second Punic War. The Fabians chose the name to draw a distinction between their slow-going tactics and those of anarchists and communists. The Latin gens name possibly is from faba "a bean" (see bean (n.)).

temperature scale, 1753, named for Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit (1686-1736), Prussian physicist who proposed the scale in 1714. The "zero" in it is arbitrary, based on the lowest temperature observed by him during the winter of 1709 in Danzig. An abstract surname meaning literally "experience."

fem. proper name, in some cases from Middle English fei, Old French fei "faith," or else from fay "fairy."

1706 in reference to the Fallopian tubes, from Latinized form of the name of Gabriello Fallopio (1523-1562), Italian anatomist who first described them.

surname attested from late 12c., from Gaelic fearchar "very dear one."

Irish surname, from Irish Fearghail "man of valor."

"the modern Persian language," 1878, from the usual Iranian word for it, from Fars, the Arabic form of Pars (no "p" in Arabic), the name of a region in southwestern Iran, where the modern language evolved from Persian (an Indo-European language), to which many Arabic (Semitic) elements have been added.

1818, literally "Fairy Morgana," mirage especially common in the Strait of Messina, Italy, from Morgana, the "Morgan le Fay" of Anglo-French poetry, sister of King Arthur, located in Calabria by Norman settlers. Morgan is Welsh, "sea-dweller." There is perhaps, too, here an influence of Arabic marjan, literally "pearl," also a fem. proper name, popularly the name of a sorceress.

nickname for a fat person, by 1944, elaboration of Fats, from fat (adj.).

in various usages, from the gentle boy hero of Frances Hodgson Burnett's popular novel "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (1885). The family name is recorded from mid-13c., literally "son of the king" (Anglo-French Le Enfant le Roy), from faunt, a Middle English variant of enfaunt (see infant). Middle English had also fauntekin "a little child" (late 14c.).