Fromfire +-y(“diminutive suffix”).
firey (pluralfireys)
- (Australia, colloquial) Afirefighter.
2006, Don Woodland, Simon Bouda, Salvation Army,Picking Up the Pieces: A Life of Care and Compassion,page135:So if afirey was having difficulties, I could go into bat for him if I felt it was necessary.
2010, Helen Thomas,Life with Rosie: The Highs and Lows of Raising a Racehorse,unnumbered page:‘Just one of those things that happens on a day like this,’ one of thefireys says, staring at what was the back door of the car.
2010, Karen Kissane,Worst of Days: Inside the Black Saturday Firestorm,unnumbered page:Kinglake Westfirey Chris Lloyd says the camaraderie is a critical ingredient of CFA life.
firey
- Misspelling offiery.
The wordfire and thefier- in the wordfiery have counterintuitively different spellings. Furthermore,fire is traditionally one syllable (now usually two), whilefiery is three. As such, it is easy to mistakefiery as a misspelling offire +-y.
