fess

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fɛs/

  Rhymes: -ɛs

Etymology 1

From confess, by shortening

Verb

fess (third-person singular simple present fesses, present participle fessing, simple past and past participle fessed)

1. To confess; to admit.

Derived terms

• fess up

Etymology 2

From Old French fesse, an alteration of faisse, from Latin fascia

Noun

fess (plural fesses)

1. (heraldry) A horizontal band across the middle of the shield.
   • 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor’, Norton 2005 p.294:

     Lord Robert Walsingham de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral—Hum! Arms: Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable.

   • 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate 2010, p. 420:

     The space where the arms of Wolsey used to be is being repainted with his own newly granted arms: azure, on a fess between three lions rampant or, a rose gules, barbed vert, between two Cornish choughs proper.

Translations

band

• Dutch: faas (nl) m and f
• Finnish: hirsi (fi)

• Portuguese: faixa (pt) f
• Romanian: fașă (ro)

---

Hungarian

Etymology

From Viennese German fesch (“smart, stylish”), from English fashionable.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfɛʃː/

Adjective

fess (comparative fessebb, superlative legfessebb)

1. (colloquial, dated) smart, stylish, chic

---

Old Irish

Verb

·fess

1. passive sing perfect prototonic of ro·finnadar