Brewer's: Faye

(1 syl.). The way to Faye (French, “Faie-la vineuse”). A winding or zigzag manner, like “Crooked Lane at Eastcheap.” A person who tries to do something indirectly goes by the pathway to Faye. Faye is a little village in France, built on an eminence so steep that there is no getting to it except by a very zigzag path.

“They go in to Paradise ... as the way is to Faye.” —Rabetais: Gargantua and Pantagruel, book i. 27.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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