How to say 'If my mouse leaves one element OR this element fade out'

How to say 'If my mouse leaves one element OR this element fade out'

Hi! The title kind of says it all but i'm in a situation where I want a drop-down list to fade in when the user hovers his/her mouse over an element, and fade out when he/she moves it out of it. Currently, the code makes the list fade in, and fade out when you leave the newly faded in list but NOT the element you have to hover over to make the list to show up in the first place, if you understand what I mean. This means the user has to haver over the list and make their mouse exit that way to make it disappear. But what if you're just scrolling along the nav bar and accidentally do it? It would be a PAIN to have to go and move your mouse into the element and move it out agin, so if there a way using jQuery to say if my mouse exits this element OR this element, fade out this element? I'm fairly new to jQuery so if it's an easy fix that I didn't realize thats why 

ANY help is appreciated! Thanks!