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

http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-fel1.htm

...and we get four-for-one with fell.

Here's the scoop on "one fell swoop":

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mfellswoop.html

George Gobel used to talk about doing something "in one swell foop."

which seems appropriate for slithy toves to note!

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

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.

> 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.

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

>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?"

"I do not like thee, Doctor Fell
The reason why I cannot tell.
But this I know, I know full well
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/juliet.turner/songs/drfell.htm

This was in the Quinion citation. It's obsolete for fur trader. Did fur used to be fell?

Also, I did not know the meaning of fey, as given in the Straight Dope site. I'd always thought it did mean otherworldly, but not particularly associated with death.

And, speaking of sayings, I wrote to someone that I had cooked "up a storm" the other day. My mother always used that expression. Is this common in other places, to mean "a lot"? Hmm, come to think of it, it usually means to do a lot in one fell swoop!

Funny, I'd always thought that it was Catullus. Must have been thrown in by the teacher after Odi et Amo, hence the confusion.

http://www.latinteach.com/latinlit.html

Dear Jackie: "cooking up a storm" I believe owes its origin to superstition of sailors that they could induce favorable winds by suitable rituals which took many forms. And careless behaviour could prevent desired weather from coming.

Birds of prey can swoop, but I seem to remember that the falconers call it a "stoop". I have a couple times seen peregrine falcons stoop on a pigeon, with an explosion of feathers awesome to behold. And I remember Oliver Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" but never knew in what sense the word was used in the title. I invite members to express opinions on that while I finish reading the play to find out.

ah, but do they call themselves fellmongers, or fur dealers? or taxidermist? tanners? or what?

http://www.andar.co.nz/pages/Products/fellmong.htm

Okay! now will some one tell me what slipe wools are?

Would the wool have a different texture then?

So, what's slipe? Sounds like a looking glass word...

Dub

Years since I saw the play, Dr Bill, but I seem to remember that the plot hangs on the inability of a young man to talk coherently to young ladies of his own class, whilst being perfectly at home in talking to lower-class females - particularly ladies of the streets and barmaids. The "Classy Lady" who is setting out to marry him pretends to be such a low character in order to woo him (rather, to enable him to woo her!) - therefore, I guess, the meaning of "stoop" in this instance is, "to lower oneself"

(But not in the sense of a female bending down to gather the fruit of the horse-chectnut!)

There is a definition of romance: A man chasing a woman until she catches him. I wondered if the heroine was a predator who dove like a hawk to capture a poor defenseless male.
To put it in simplest terms, she used a subterfuge to induce male to declare his love for her where the eavesdropping fathers could overhear, and complete arranged marriage negotiations.

Incidentally, I found the play in Bartleby. Click on "titles".

I wrote to someone that I had cooked "up a storm" the other day.

Ah, yes, you're the fourth witch, aren't you?

I've often felt that.

I think it was Martial, jo. Dr. Fell gave one of his students Martial's ode to translate as an unseen in an oral exam. "I do not love thee Dr. Fell ..." was the result.

Bingley