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Grammar pedants - help please.

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♪♫ Synge ♪♫ Mar 2023 10:18pm, 23 Mar 2023 49,360 posts	Quote Pin ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ I suspect that we all remember from uni or college those A4 pads of paper with feint lines ruled across the pages. Who can help me explain to my daughter why the line on her lateral flow test is a faint line and not a feint line?
alpenrose Mar 2023 6:25am, 24 Mar 2023 58,979 posts	Quote Pin alpenrose You could try getting a dictionary out.
♪♫ Synge ♪♫ Mar 2023 8:28am, 24 Mar 2023 49,363 posts	Quote Pin ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ I suppose I was wondering why they are feint lines rather than wondering which is correct.
DeeGee Mar 2023 8:39am, 24 Mar 2023 22,498 posts	Quote Pin DeeGee As I understand it "feint" is specifically used in papermaking to describe that style of ruled paper. I suspect that they have the same etymological root. Is it feasible that the split between the spellings for this particular usage occurred before the spelling "faint" was set? Papermaking and printing has been around a lot longer than the dictionary.
DeeGee Mar 2023 8:44am, 24 Mar 2023 22,499 posts	Quote Pin DeeGee Alternatively, going from the meaning of the word "feint", and the fact that on my pad on my desk just here it's "ruled feint", is it that the lines aren't actually ruled (ie by someone's hand), but are "pretend" ruled lines, in that they were printed? I'd just be guessing to be honest.
ChrisHB Mar 2023 8:55am, 24 Mar 2023 22,359 posts	Quote Pin ChrisHB The two words appear to have the same beginnings. merriam-webster.com merriam-webster.com But: He feints ~= he is fighting and tries to deceive He faints ~= he was overcome by weakness so the verb has opposed meanings
♪♫ Synge ♪♫ Mar 2023 9:14am, 24 Mar 2023 49,364 posts	Quote Pin ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ It looks as if Merriam Webster doesn’t recognise feint as an adjective. Does that make it a British English usage only? It seems likely that it could be an alternative spelling that stuck.
um Mar 2023 9:54am, 24 Mar 2023 7,215 posts	Quote Pin um I suspect faint has gone from not just weakness, but to also now mean pale, as in colours or 'a faint hint of'. Whereas feint has always been deception, in paper (and IT forms), it's supposedly there as a guide, not necessarily to be seen later. (as in old manuscripts where it was a very light line). Also can be used, I think, for pale format hints, eg a light grey dd mm yy in date fields that disappear as you type soemthing in?
Silent Runner Mar 2023 9:54am, 24 Mar 2023 924 posts	Quote Pin Silent Runner Google’s dictionary gives feint (in the printing sense) as a mid 19th century variant of faint.
♪♫ Synge ♪♫ Mar 2023 10:28am, 24 Mar 2023 49,366 posts	Quote Pin ♪♫ Synge ♪♫ On a slightly related note, I am delighted to see that Basildon Bond still supply a lined guide sheet with their pads of writing paper. Memories of using these to write birthday and Christmas thank you letters as a child!