tungemål wrote:Fain
Reading Dickens I encountered some new (for me) words. Like fain.
It's an old germanic word meaning happy, glad. It exists in Norwegian and Swedish as obsolete words, allthough I don't think I've ever heard it.
NO: fegjen
SW: fägen
Is "fain" still used in English or is it now only found in old literature?
I'd say it's very obsolete. The kind of archaism someone would use mostly to annoy others.
Someone once pointed out this word to me after I mentioned I was surprised by the way in which German uses the adverb
gern (which means the same thing as the adverb "fain": to like doing something, to do something gladly), mentioning the similar English adverb "lief" (which expresses preference in the construction "I would as lief do sth as do sth else". Then he added (note: RPing = roleplaying):
"However, while I'd personally use these words fain on a daily basis, anyone else not actively RPing or attempting to write like ye olde Englishe folke would apparently as lief say "fain" as sever their lower fingers"...