fettle
English edit
Etymology edit
From 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] and then 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
Noun edit
fettle (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 edit
Outside 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 edit
Translations edit
one’s mental state — see also spirits
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sand to line a furnace
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Verb edit
fettle (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 term: fiddle
- 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 edit
Translations edit
to make preparations, put things in order or do trifling business
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to line the hearth of a furnace with sand
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to remove seam lines left by the meeting of two molds
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See also edit
References 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]