fettle
English
editEtymology
editFrom Late Middle English fetlen (“(verb) to bestow; to fix, prepare, put in place; to prepare (oneself) for battle, gird up; to shape; to be about to, or to ready (oneself) to stay; (adjective) shaped (well or poorly)”) [and other forms],[1] which possibly:
- from Old English fetel (“belt, girdle, fettle”),[2] from Proto-Germanic *fatilaz, further etymology unknown; or
- from Old English fetian (“to fetch”), from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną (“to fetch”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“foot”).
Compare Old English ġefetelsod (“provided with a belt; trimmed, polished, ornamented”).
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /ˈfɛtl̩/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛtəl
- Hyphenation: fet‧tle
Noun
editfettle (plural fettles)
- A state of physical condition; kilter or trim.
- 1979 August, P. R. G. Kennard, “Polish Steam Panorama”, in Railway World, page 421:
- These strong 2-8-2s […] appeared in good fettle, especially those shedded at Lublin and several arrivals and departures were photographed in the fine evening light.
- One's mental state; spirits.
- Sand used to line a furnace.
- (ceramics) A seam line left by the meeting of mould pieces.
- (UK, dialectal) The act of fettling.
- (Cumbria, Geordie) A person's mood or state, often assuming the worst.
- What’s yer fettle marra?
Usage notes
editOutside of dialects, this noun is a fossil, found only in the phrase in fine fettle; but the verb and the corresponding gerund remain in common use in British English (for example, "this will need a bit of fettling to get sorted").
Derived terms
editTranslations
editone’s mental state — see also spirits
|
sand to line a furnace
|
Verb
editfettle (third-person singular simple present fettles, present participle fettling, simple past and past participle fettled)
- (especially Northern England) To sort out, to fix, to mend, to repair.
- Coordinate terms: fiddle, fiddle with
- 1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia:
- He is getting his saddle altered: fettling about this and that; does not consider what danger he is in.
- 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VI, in Capricornia[1], page 83:
- For some time after the train had gone Oscar stood on the track conversing with members of the fettling gang […]
- (intransitive) To make preparations; to put things in order; to do trifling business.
- c. 1600, John Ayliffe, Satires:
- Nor list he now go whistling to the car,
But sells his team , and fettleth to the war
- (transitive) To line the hearth of a furnace with sand prior to pouring molten metal.
- (reflexive, Geordie) To be upset or in a bad mood.
- Divint fettle yersel ower that!
- In ceramics, to remove (as by sanding) the seam lines left by the meeting of two molds.
- (transitive, archaic) To prepare.
- 1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet:
- But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next...
Derived terms
editTranslations
editto make preparations, put things in order or do trifling business
|
to line the hearth of a furnace with sand
|
to remove seam lines left by the meeting of two molds
|
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ “fetlen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ “fettle, v.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “fettle, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
edit- Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
- “fettle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin, [2]
- Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[3]
- Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →ISBN
- A List of words and phrases in everyday use by the natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham, F.M.T.Palgrave, English Dialect Society vol.74, 1896, [4]
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ped-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛtəl
- Rhymes:English/ɛtəl/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Ceramics
- British English
- English dialectal terms
- Cumbrian English
- Geordie English
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English reflexive verbs
- English terms with archaic senses
- Northumbrian English
- en:Emotions