Fades

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /feɪdz/

Definitions

1. Gradually loses brightness, color, or sharpness over time ; slowly becomes less loud or less noticeable until disappearing
2. To diminish in intensity, such as a color or light becoming less vivid ; to decrease in sound or presence gently until it vanishes
3. When something steadily declines in brightness or clarity ; when a sound or image slowly diminishes until it is no longer obvious

Etymology: The verb "fades" is simply the third-person singular present of "fade," so the history belongs to the base word. That base has two possible strands, and the sources do not settle between them. One traces it to Middle English "fade" meaning pale, withered or weak, which came from Middle Dutch "vade" (faint, limp) and, further back, from Old French "fade" meaning weak or witless. That Old French word is probably from Vulgar Latin "fatidus," related to Latin "fatuus," meaning insipid or foolish. The Latin ancestor thus carried a sense of dullness that suits a colour or sound that has gone flat. A second, independent possibility links "fade" to Middle English "fede," of uncertain origin, and perhaps to Old English "ġefæd," meaning orderly, tidy or well-regulated. The connection is unproven, so the first account is the one most commonly given. Either way, the sense of light or sound gradually losing its strength is a meaning the word carried from the start in English.

Synonyms: diminishes, weakens, dwindles, evaporates, disappears

Antonyms: intensifies, strengthens, increases