Fell

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Dr. Goodword
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Fell

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Sep 23, 2022 6:06 pm

• fell •


Pronunciation: fel • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: Pelt, hide, animal skin with the hair.

Notes: Today's pronunciation fits a noun (today's word) and another meaning "a stony, barren hill, a verb meaning "cause to fall" as 'to fell a tree' and the past tense of fall, an adjective meaning "fiercely sinister, lethal", as 'one fell blow'. It is a lexical orphan except for a few compounds like fell-ill "hidebound (cattle disease)", fell-ware "hides and skins", and fellmonger "a dealer in animal skins".

In Play: Any animal skin with hair on it is a fell: "Phil Anders is by any measure a wolf in sheep's fell." 'Flesh and fell' is the name of a Dutch rock band and an archaic phrase once used in the sense of "entirely": "The good years shall devour them, flesh and fell." Shakespeare King Lear (1643).

Word History: Today's Good Word was spelled fel in Old English, which obtained it from PIE pel-/pol- "skin, hide, membrane" via its Germanic ancestors. The same word underlies Old English filmen "membrane", which is today film. The same PIE source provided German Fell "pelt" and Dutch vel "pelt", and Swedish fjall "fish scale". The [p] did not change to [f] elsewhere among IE languages, so we find Latin pellis "skin", from which came French peau, Portuguese pele, Spanish piel, and Italian pelle. Lithuanian pleve "skin" and Czech plena "diaper" may have descended from metathesized versions of the same PIE word. (David Myer suggested we do fellmonger, but when I researched the first component of this compound, I found it so remarkable I decided to run it by itself. Thank you, David, just the same.)
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Philip Hudson
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Re: Fell

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Sep 23, 2022 9:43 pm

There is the phrase "one fell swoop" which means a sudden action. It is attributed to the Bard. I have used it time out of mind. My father-in-law said, "One foul swoop", and I referred him to Shakespeare. He was a devotee of the Bard having some slight experience on the stage himself.
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Slava
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Re: Fell

Postby Slava » Sat Sep 24, 2022 6:06 am

I prefer my mother's version, "One swell foop". :D
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Re: Fell

Postby MTC » Sat Sep 24, 2022 10:26 am

I think of the phrase, “in the fell clutch of circumstance” from the poem, Invictus. And then of the cruel association with pelt, the noun.

Philip Hudson
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Re: Fell

Postby Philip Hudson » Sat Sep 24, 2022 5:42 pm

Slava, I salute your mother's "One swell foop".
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

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Re: Fell

Postby David Myer » Sat Sep 24, 2022 7:50 pm

Thanks for the research, Doc. Very interesting. I get the fell and pelt connection. That makes good sense. But I wonder where the 'sinister' definition came from? Fell swoop, fell blow, fell clutch etc (love your 'fell clutch of circumstance', MTC. Great writing.)

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Slava
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Re: Fell

Postby Slava » Sun Sep 25, 2022 6:10 am

David, the sinister fell you're asking about is the other one, with different roots. The Good Doctor treated it here.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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Re: Fell

Postby David Myer » Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:35 am

Dear oh dear. So he did, Slava. Thanks for the reminder, and I see that I am amongst the contributors to its subsequent debate. Amazing how little I really learn from this site. It all goes in most constructively and meaningfully, but then it dissipates somehow and lo, three years later, it is as though nothing happened at all.

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Re: Fell

Postby Debbymoge » Sun Sep 25, 2022 10:53 am

David, do not berate yourself so!
Three years?
The lapse time for me from "I shall remember that one!" to
"Never seen that before!" is down to minutes (at best).

More disturbing most days is the list of "I KNOW that one! What IS it!!!"


Debby M.
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