"Who started it? Nobody seems to know, though I suspect a children's
publisher or greetings-card company." (Crystal)

(I would say "greeting-card". Is the -s standard in UK?)

As it happens, we've been reading through the Grimm Brothers' collection
(in English, translation by Ralph Manheim). I read (aloud), my wife
listens and (usually) falls asleep.
We're up to story #128 (The Lazy Spinner).
There are lots of big dark forests, enchanted castles, beautiful
princesses, witches, giants, even the Devil himself in various
disguises. Cruel and unusual punishments for the bad characters.
But hardly any fairies. How, I wonder, did "fairy tale" become the
conventional English name for them? (Of course the Grimms called them
Kinder- und Hausmärchen.)

To get back to today's Day: What does it mean to "tell" a fairy tale? Am
I "telling" a story when I read it aloud from a book? I don't think so.
I would at least have to say it from memory. Or do I have to make it up
myself?

On 2024-02-26, Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz> wrote:

> How, I wonder, did "fairy tale" become the conventional English
> name for them?

For one thing, "fairy" has changed meaning. Etymonline:

c. 1300, _fairie_, "the country or home of supernatural or legendary
creatures; fairyland," also "something incredible or fictitious,"
[...] As a type of supernatural being from late 14c. [...], perhaps
via intermediate forms such as _fairie knight_ "supernatural or
legendary knight" (c. 1300), as in Spenser, where faeries are
heroic and human-sized. As a name for the diminutive winged beings
in children's stories from early 17c.

Alternatively, or even more likely, it's a calque of "conte de fées".

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

On 27/02/2024 3:11 a.m., Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> On 2024-02-26, Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz> wrote:
>
>> How, I wonder, did "fairy tale" become the conventional English
>> name for them?
>
> For one thing, "fairy" has changed meaning. Etymonline:
>
> c. 1300, _fairie_, "the country or home of supernatural or legendary
> creatures; fairyland," also "something incredible or fictitious,"
> [...] As a type of supernatural being from late 14c. [...], perhaps
> via intermediate forms such as _fairie knight_ "supernatural or
> legendary knight" (c. 1300), as in Spenser, where faeries are
> heroic and human-sized. As a name for the diminutive winged beings
> in children's stories from early 17c.
>
> Alternatively, or even more likely, it's a calque of "conte de fées".

Undoubtedly. First used in French 17th century, instantly calqued in
English (J.Swan, Speculum mundi, 1635).

I guess what I was puzzling over was that when the Grimm collection came
along, two centuries later, it was readily included in this (English)
category, meaning that the presence of fairies (whatever that meant at
the time) was no longer criterial. Any sort of supernatural or
fantastical element would do.

Some of the Grimms' don't even have that, like "The Lazy Spinner" that I
mentioned (a woman plays tricks on her husband to get out of her wifely
duty of spinning). They are just funny stories, exaggerated versions of
ordinary life.