Meaning
Conduct that follows the rules and gives everyone an equal chance, extended to fairness and justice in any dealing, not just games. In British English 'fair play to you' is a warm aside granting someone credit. Neutral register with a sporting flavour. Neutral with a sporting flavour; the praise sense 'fair play to you' is chiefly British and informal. Regional use: General English (Shakespearean origin).
Origin
Miranda says it in The Tempest, Act 5 Scene 1 (c. 1610-11), teasing Ferdinand at chess: 'Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle, / And I would call it fair play.' The Folger text confirms the scene and wording. The Phrase Finder credits Shakespeare with the coinage and dates the play to 1610, but evidence it notes from Early English Books (for example 'Horne vseth no faire play with his aduersary') shows the collocation in print earlier, so 'popularised by Shakespeare' is the honest verdict. From the stage it passed into the vocabulary of sport and fair dealing; the Australian cousin 'fair go' is first recorded in Louis Stone's 1911 novel Jonah.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- fair play to you
- in fair play
- spirit of fair play
- that's fair play
Usage Examples
- The referee stopped the match to remind both teams that fair play matters more than the score.
- Fair play to you for cycling to work in that weather.
- She could easily have poached the client, but fair play stopped her.