▪ I. fest U.S.
(fɛst)
[a. G. fest festival.]
With qualifying word, as gabfest, hen fest, talk fest, etc., denoting a festival or special occasion.
| 1865 Harper's Weekly 5 Aug. 490/2 Arrangements were made for the Saengerfest. 1889 Kansas Times & Star 24 June, Bob Ricketts won the gold medal at the shooting fest of the Kansas City Gun Club Saturday. 1910 Chicago Daily Maroon 10 June 1/2 After the roll call a ‘talk fest’ was indulged in by some of the old timers. 1924 [see bull n.4 3 b]. 1945 A. J. Liebling in Best Amer. Short Stories (1946) 275 He explained that a rat fest was a ‘rat race, but all bollixed up’. 1952 M. Steen Phoenix Rising iv. 86 Some kind of a liquor-fest in an off-colour bar. 1963 M. McCarthy Group i. 23 She..loved..a good hen fest. 1970 Guardian 26 Sept. 11/2 ‘Cinema City’, the Round House's filmfest, ended with an open forum. |
▪ II. fest, fest-
obs. ff. fast, fast-, feast, fist.