köken: Uncertain. The word does not occur in Middle Persian writings, except possibly in the Dēnkard, a 10th-century compendium, where it can be interpreted as "nihility"; whence it would be inherited from Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (pwc /pūč/). The word became widespread in Iranian varieties first in the fifteenth century onward, but existed before it. Possibly from the onomatopoetic…
vain (overly concerned with one's appearance or reputation) · futile, vain (having no chance of success)
çekim: karşılaştırma fåfängare · üstünlük fåfängast
köken: From Old Swedish fafænger, equivalent to past participle of få (“few”) + få (“receive”), thus originally "[which] received little". Compare etymology of eldfängd and befängd. Attested since the mid-14th century in the sense "futile". Compare Norwegian Nynorsk fåfengd.
futile (of a promise, not intended to be kept) · uncovered, bounced, unbacked (not backed with sufficient funds, as a cheque) · groundless, baseless (without any grounds to support it, like a rumor)
nonsensical, meaningless (such that it does not make sense, has no meaning, is not understandable) · pointless, meaningless, senseless, nonsensical (such that it has no reasonable purpose)
çekim: karşılaştırma bezjēdzīgāks · üstünlük visbezjēdzīgākais
köken: bez- (“without”) + jēga (“meaning, sense, understanding”) + -īgs, with g > dz via palatalization.