Etymology
1. attested in London criminal slang as adj. (1775), verb (1812), and noun (1827), but probably older. Likely source is
feague "to spruce up by artificial means," from Ger.
fegen "polish, sweep," also "to clear out, plunder" in colloquial use. "Much of our early thieves' slang is Ger. or Du., and dates from the Thirty Years' War" [Weekley]. Or it may be from L.
facere "to do."
2. The origin is not known with certainty, although first attested in 1775 C.E. in British criminals' slang. It is probably from feak, feague (“to give a better appearance through artificial means, spruce up, embellish”), itself from German Low German fegen, from Middle Low German vēgen, from Old Saxon fegōn, from Proto-West Germanic *fegōn (“to clean up, polish”).
3. Akin to Dutch veeg (“a swipe”), Dutch vegen (“to sweep, wipe”); German fegen (“to sweep, to polish”). Compare also Old English fācn (“deceit, fraud”). Perhaps related also to Old Norse fjúka (“to fade, vanquish, disappear”), Old Norse feikn (“strange, scary, unnatural”). See: German, old spelling '
fegen'.
Verbs referencing "fake"
French
faker, Cebuano peke, Finnish with old forms
feikata, German, old spelling
faken.