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old hand
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OP
old hand
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Recently sent an email to a group of people and thought, "It's handy to be able to do this in one fell swoop".
Common enough saying - but why fell swoop?
stales
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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George Gobel used to talk about doing something "in one swell foop."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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which seems appropriate for slithy toves to note!
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Joined: Nov 2000
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old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
I hoped you'd bring that up - after turning my 4 "roots" into 2 [still grumbling in the background about the validity of at least three -e]!!
So do I get the record for variants now?
stales
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Joined: Dec 2000
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Often misquoted as 'foul swoop', which is actually quite an amusing pun, given the context.
No offence, Macduff, I know it wasn't amusing to you.
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
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> No offence, Macduff, I know it wasn't amusing to you.
After showing some distrust from the beginning, he really could have made the proper precautions before fleeing to England. I find it really hard to feel sorry for him. Of course the final avengement would not have had the same dramatic force without his selfish disregard for his family.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear tsuwm,
Quinion writes:
There are actually four fell words in English; apart from this one, there is the verb meaning to cut down (intimately linked with fall), the one meaning an animal skin (as in the obsolete trade of fellmonger), and the one meaning a hill (as in the fells of Cumbria). They all come from different source words.
We've got the fell swoop fell, and he writes about the three beyond the swoop fell: the fall, the skin, and the hill.
My question is, what with dell's being a hollow down in the hills, and fell's being a hill, is there something geographical in the ell ending? "The farmer on the fell, another in the dell, heigh-ho the derry-o!, the farmer on the fell!---or in the dell!"
Best regards,
WordWoe
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
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>his selfish disregard for his family
Not to mention the things Shaky would do for a good rhyme - where would Lady B be without:
"The thane of Fife had a wife:
where is she now?"
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