Faint
Middle English (in the sense ‘feigned’, also ‘feeble, cowardly’, surviving in faint heart): from Old French faint, past participle of faindre (see feign). Compare with feint1.
wiktionary
From Middle English faynt, feynt(“weak; feeble”), from Old French faint, feint(“feigned; negligent; sluggish”), past participle of feindre, faindre(“to feign; sham; work negligently”), from Latin fingere(“to touch, handle, usually form, shape, frame, form in thought, imagine, conceive, contrive, devise, feign”).
From Middle English fainten, feynten, from the adjective (see above).
etymonline
faint (adj.)
c. 1300, "enfeebled; wearied, exhausted," from Old French faint, feint "false, deceitful; sham, artificial; weak, faint, lazy, indolent, cowardly," past participle of feindre "hesitate, falter, be indolent, show weakness, avoid one's duty by pretending," from Latin fingere "to touch, handle; devise; fabricate, alter, change" (from PIE root *dheigh- "to form, build"). Also from c. 1300 as "deceitful; unreliable; false." Meaning "wanting in spirit or courage, cowardly" (a sense now mostly encountered in faint-hearted) is from early 14c. From early 15c. of actions, functions, colors, etc., "weak, feeble, poor." Meaning "producing a feeble impression upon the senses" is from 1650s.
faint (v.)
c. 1300, "grow weak, become enfeebled," also "lack courage or spirit, be faint-hearted," and "to pretend, feign;" from faint (adj.). Sense of "swoon, lose consciousness" is from c. 1400. Also used in Middle English of the fading of colors, flowers, etc. Related: Fainted; fainting. For Chaucer and Shakespeare, also a transitive verb ("It faints me").
faint (n.)
c. 1300, "faintness, faint-heartedness," from faint (adj.). From 1808 as "a swoon."
