Etymology Unknown. According to Chambers, from Old English fēġan (“to join or fit together”); Liberman suggests a Middle English variant of fagot (“bundle of sticks”). Compare also Old English feċġan (“to seize, take hold, bring to”).
Well, Sir, how fadges the new deſign; have you not the luck of all your Brother Projectors, to deceive only your ſelf at laſt?1675, [William] Wycherley, The Country-wife, a Comedy, […], London: Printed for Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC; republished London: Printed for T[homas] Dring, and sold by R. Bentley, and S. Magnes […], 1688, →OCLC, Act IV, scene iii, page 45:
They shall be made, spight of antipathy, to fadge together.1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC:
I can never fadge well: for I am at such a stay, that except for health and life, there is nothing I will take the paines to fret my selfe about, or will purchase at so high a rate as to trouble my wits for it, or be constrained thereunto.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
"Here's a fadge (farthing) or a button," I said, taking my pocket knife and cutting a few of the stitches holding the cloth and lining together, […]1868, Thomas Wright, Johnny Robinson, page 173: