fotay or forty is slang for the 40 ounce bottle containing malt liquor which is beer fortified with grain alcohol. Claims have been made that malt liquor such as Colt 45, Schlitz Malt Liquor, and Old English were targeted specifically at the black community. This was supported by the nature of the ad campaigns which used such black sexual idols as Billy Dee Williams posing with a bevy of beautiful black women with the tag line "It works every time" implying it was useful in seducing women. He has recently reappeared in the commercial, that depicts him in the original 1980's clip and now 40 years later with the tag line A true original doesn't need to change a thing...it works every time.

40 or fotay has become stylish with the number displayed prominently on the labels of the bottles.

Briefly, "the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own." Originally from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which has a lot more beautiful neologism definitions like this you might enjoy.