fell

Fell is also the past tense of fall.^[1][2] Four other words are spelled fell: “animal skin”, “to cut down”, “cruel” and “hill”.^[3][4][5]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fel/^[6]

fell¹ skin

Etymology

The skin is inherited from Middle English felle,^[3] inherited from Old English fell (“skin, hide”), fel,^[3][5] from Proto-Germanic *fellam,^[5] from Proto-Indo-European *pello-,^[5] the base also of Latin pellis (“skin”).^[3][5][4] It is cognate with Old Frisian and Old Saxon fel, Dutch vel, German Fell, Old Norse fell (in berfjall “bearskin”) and Gothic -fill in þrūtsfill “leprosy”.^[3][5] Barnhart relates it to film.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The skin or hide of an animal, with the hair or wool: about 725, in Beowulf,^[3] and about 1000 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It was also used of the human skin from about 1000, often in phrases with flesh,^[7] and of a thick, matted covering of hair or wool, a fleece, from 1600.^[7] In dialect from Scotland to Kent it remained the word for a skin or hide.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 725 – an animal's skin.^[3]
• c. 1000 – the human skin.^[7]
• 1600 – a fleece.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An animal's skin or hide, with the hair or wool.
2. A thick covering of hair or wool; a fleece.

Word family

• fellmonger

fell² cut down

Etymology

The verb meaning “to cut down” is inherited from Middle English fellen,^[3][4] inherited from Old English fellan (“to make fall; to demolish, kill”), Mercian fællan, West Saxon fyllan,^[9][3] from Proto-Germanic *falljanan (“to strike down, cause to fall”),^[9][3] a causative of the source of fall, with i-mutation.^[9][10] It is cognate with Old Frisian fella, Old Saxon fellian, Dutch vellen, German fällen and Old Norse fella.^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make fall, demolish, kill: before 800, in the Mercian dialect.^[3] The OED's first examples, to strike down a man or animal and to cut down a tree, are from about 1000.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Old English also used the verb of disease or hunger laying someone low (about 900) and of overthrowing a building (before 1000).^[7] The sewing sense, to finish a seam by turning under and stitching down the raw edges, is a later use,^[1][11] and the noun, the timber cut down in a season, is from the early 17th century.^[2][1]

Timeline

• before 800 – to make fall, kill.^[3]
• c. 1000 – to cut down a tree.^[7]
• early 17th century – noun, timber felled.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To cut down a tree.
2. To knock down; to kill.
3. To sew a seam with the raw edges turned under and stitched flat.

Noun

1. The timber cut down in one season.

Word family

• feller

fell³ cruel

Etymology

The adjective meaning “cruel” is inherited from Middle English fel,^[4] borrowed from Old French fel (“cruel, fierce, vicious”),^[9][3][4] the nominative of a word whose oblique case gave felon,^[2][4] from Medieval Latin fello (“villain, rogue”).^[9][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fierce, cruel, terrible: about 1300 in Barnhart,^[3] before 1300 in the OED,^[7] and the late 13th century in Etymonline.^[9] The sense “shrewd, cunning”, now obsolete, is from about 1275.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English it also meant “keen, piercing” of weapons or pain, “angry” and “sturdy, doughty”.^[7] The phrase at one fell swoop is from Shakespeare's Macbeth, where Macduff learns that his wife and children have been killed;^[9][10] it first described the deadly descent of a bird of prey, and came to mean “all at once”.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – shrewd, cunning.^[7]
• c. 1300 – fierce, cruel.^[3][7]
• 1606 – at one fell swoop, in Macbeth.^[9][10]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. (literary) Fierce and cruel; deadly: a fell disease.
2. at one fell swoop: All at once.

fell⁴ hill

Etymology

The hill is inherited from Middle English fell,^[4] borrowed from Old Norse fjall (“mountain”), fell,^{[9][4][5][10]} from Proto-Germanic *felzam- (“rock”),^[9] from Proto-Indo-European *pel(i)s- (“rock, cliff”).^[9] It is related to German Fels “rock”,^[9][5] whose Old High German form felisa is the source of French falaise “cliff”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A rocky hill: about 1300 in Etymonline,^[9] the 13th century in Merriam-Webster^[4] and Hoad.^[5]

Semantic evolution

A wild, high stretch of moorland or pasture is from before 1300, now chiefly in the north of England;^[7][8] in the 16th and 17th centuries it was misunderstood as “marsh, fen”.^[7] The word survives mostly in place names, such as Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a rocky hill.^[9]
• 16th century – misread as a fen.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (northern England) A hill or mountain; a stretch of high, open moorland.

Related words

• fall
• felon
• film

References

1. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
2. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster