fairmaid

fairmaid noun: a mermaid from a blackwater creek or river.

Noun (1)

fairmaid (plural fairmaids)

A mermaid from a blackwater creek or river.
- I go down to the punt-trench and I beg the water people. Help me, I say. I throw eggs — fresh eggs — in the black water. It was to feed the fairmaids.1978, Angus Richmond, A Kind of Living, page 13
- The only trouble was that he had to pass a koker, and people said that at night when everyone was asleep and the moon had gone in, the fairmaids came out to sit on the koker to comb their long hair.1980, Andrew Salkey, Caribbean Folk Tales and Legends, page 34
(often) Synonym of snowdrop.
- Fairmaid is a soft pink flower, very pleasing.1903, William Robinson, The Garden
- ...fairmaids of February, white ladies and Candlemas bells, which surely deserved a hearing.2009, Country Life - Volume 203, page 54
Synonyms:

snowdrop

fairmaid (plural fairmaids)

A smoked or salted pilchard.
- The low prices which fish have been bringing of late years is a serious matter for those who prosecute the fisheries to look in the face. Has the taste for fairmaids died out with the Italians, or are they being supplied from other countries ?1887, The Journal of the National Fish Culture Association
- At present the only method applicable to large quantities of fish taken at one time, is that which translates the silvery, savoury little fishes into intensely salt ' fairmaids.' So saturated do these ' fairmaids ' become by the salt or brine in which they have been placed, that English eaters...1902, Charles James Longman, Longman's Magazine - Volume 40, page 345

Traditionally, fairmaids transform mediocrity into genius.2001, Sargasso, page 35:
These February fairmaids, closely linked with ancient church traditions, still grow naturally in profusion at many monastic sites.2012, Ruth Binney, The Gardener's Wise Words and Country Ways, →ISBN, page 170:
Now the salted pilchards, known as fairmaids, were washed in a kieve, or huge wooden tray having a grating in the bottom through which the fish scales could drop.1988, John Corin, Fishermen's Conflict: The Story of a Cornish Fishing Port, page 49:
Tom feeds her morgy-broth, kedgeree, grilled fairmaids, and star-gazy pie.2001, Nancy Allen Jurenka, Hobbies Through Children's Books and Activities, →ISBN, page 13:

plural	fairmaids

From fair + maid.

Corruption of Spanish fumado.

What does fairmaid mean?: Fairmaid means a mermaid from a blackwater creek or river.
How do you use fairmaid in a sentence?: Traditionally, fairmaids transform mediocrity into genius.
What part of speech is fairmaid?: Fairmaid is a noun.
What is the plural of fairmaid?: The plural of fairmaid is fairmaids.

Adapted from Wiktionary: fairmaid (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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