Well there you go. Thank you. I found this quite interesting. I was a bit off in my understanding of it too. I had assumed there was more of a lack of masculinity quality attached to it. The opposite of latin machismo perhaps. Probably brought in by that "elfin" bit you mentioned. Then again, maybe I just mentally made twee into wee and went from there. Interesting. Ed
Fey is another spelling of Fay, which is an ebonic slang term for "white man". It's generally derogative, but in some contexts is merely familiar.
Fey/Fay is also Scots slang, relating to one fated to die, doomed, especially as portended by peculiar, usually elated behaviour.
It also can be traced back to a Gallic word meaning to clean out, or scour.
Fey was also once Scots spelling for the word "fee"
It can also mean eccentric, slightly mad, whimsical, supernatural fairy-like and elfin.
It is generally these last few meanings for which the word is used nowadays.
Twee is a colloquial adjective meaning small and sweet, sentimentally pretty.
There are two theories for its etymology, whether 'tweet' being used as a term meaning 'extra sweet' got contracted, or whether it's more Gallic, and thus a combination of T-iny and WEE.
Conjugations accepted by Chambers are the adverb "Tweely" and the noun "Tweeness"
Twee is/was also a Scots interjectory term, used as a call to calves at feeding time.
The OED says that twee means dainty, chic, over-nice, over-refined, precious, mawkish.
The OED puts the etymology down to a juvenile pronunciation of the word "sweet".
Hope this helped in some small way. I'm trying to distract myself with reference books because I have an interview in a minute.
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