fairy n Cp JOYCE 255: fairy breeze, for ~ squall, 303 pookapyle, and DINNEEN púca 'fairy' for 'toadstool' terms in sense 1; Kilkenny Lexicon fairy blast, ~ struck, EDD ~ 11 (41) (b): fairy-stricken, ~ struck Ir for cpd in sense 2.
   Attrib, comb fairy('s) bread: wild mushroom; toadstool.
   C 65-4 In Fogo the mushrooms that are found growing around trees are called fairy's bread. C 71-120 The toadstool was called fairy caps by older people; also fairy bread.
   fairy bun: bread carried when travelling alone to ward off the fairies; COMPANY BREAD; cpBUN.
   1966 FARIS 40 Many of the more traditional men carry small buns (called 'fairy buns') into the woods with them to drop along the trail at intervals in order to satisfy the mischievous [fairies] and bribe them into not disguising the trail.
   fairy cap: toadstool; mushroom; DEAD-MAN'S CAP, DEVIL'S ~ .
   1939 DULEY 23 Running ahead, Mary Immaculate had kicked over a fairy-cap. Large and flat, like the crust of new bread, it lay spilled from its stalk. T 175/6-65 The wild mushrooms, you know—we call it fairy caps. C 71-92 As children we were told not to touch the 'fairy caps' because the fairies would take us if we did.
   fairy hand-bar: variety of kelp, shaped like a miniature hand-barrow.
   1972 MURRAY 119 [She] said that when she was a child in the early 1900s she used to pick up 'fairy handbars.' These were sections of seaweed tossed up on the beach which, when dry, resembled the handbar used for carrying fish.
   fairy-led: led astray by fairies; lost in familiar surroundings; dazed.
   T 344A She went into the woods and couldn't find her way out, and they said she was fairy-led. C 66-1 This girl down on the Cape Shore was fairy led ... gone from home for seven or eight days. The fairies took her off in the woods and when she came home she was crazy. C 66-9 Persons who are alone in the woods at night are likely to be fairy-led. T 271-663 [If people] lose their way in the country they thought they were fairyled. C 67-12 'You are going around fairy led.' This expression was often used of anyone going around in a daze.
   fairy man: changeling.
   1931 BYRNES 76 Stuart Taylor, known to the small boys as the 'fairy man' or 'changeling' who played incesssantly on a tin whistle.
   fairy path: a clear but little-used woods path.
   C 64-1 A fairy path is ... a path which never becomes overgrown by shrubs or bushes, even though it is little used by humans. It is believed that such paths are used by the fairies who keep them beaten down.
   fairy pipe: the immature frond of a variety of fern; fiddle-head.
   C 69-15 We always referred to what are known in Nova Scotia as fiddle-heads as fairy pipes. We were not afraid of them, but often picked them and pretended to smoke them.
   fairy squall: a strong, sudden gust of wind on an otherwise calm day (C 64-4).
   1968 DILLON 137 A fairy squall blows up kind o'sudden, but there's no lasting to it. M 71-42 He told me about a fairy squall, which consisted of a little whirlwind, and when these came around early fall the old people would say the fairies were dancing.
   fairy stool: see fairy cap above.
   C 69-24 Toadstools were also called fairy stools.
   fairy stroke: ailment inflicted by fairies; paralysis thought to be caused supernaturally; BLAST. Cp fairy struck.
   M 71-42 Fairy stroke is paralysis of any limbs due to the power of the fairies, who could cause this effect at will.
   fairy-struck: mentally or physically harmed by the fairies; afflicted by paralysis. Cp BLAST 2.
   C 64-1 If a child or even an adult strays into such a [fairy] path he is likely to be taken away by fairies. If not actually taken away, he may be fairy-struck or queer in some way. C 66-2 If you went too far in the woods the fairies would lead you astray—you would get fairy-struck.
   fairy tune: song supposedly learned supernaturally.
   C 71-26 This Irishman knew many unfamiliar songs, for the people believed that he learned these songs from the fairies. His songs came to be called fairy tunes. People requested the fiddlers of the place to play fairy tunes, that were passed down from father to son but had been first learned from Dick, the Irishman.

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