Also 7 fie foh fumme, 8 fe fi fo fum, 7–9 fee fa fum.
1. The first line of doggerel spoken by the giant in the nursery tale of ‘Jack the giant killer’ upon discovering the presence of Jack.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 188.
| His word was still fie, foh, and fumme, | |
| I smell the blood of a British man. |
1711. Chap-bk., Jack & the Giants, II. Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum I smell the Blood of an English Man.
2. a. An exclamation indicating a murderous intention. b. Nonsense, fitted only to terrify children. Also attrib.
1690. Dryden, Amphitryon, II. i. I am a dead man: The bloody villain is at his fee, fa, fum, already.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. I am not to be frighted by fee, faw, fum; I am not to be scared by nonsense.
1825. Macaulay, Milton, Ess. 1854, I. 12. They have … none of the fee-faw-fum of Tasso and Klopstock.
1830. A. Fonblanque, Eng. under 7 Administ. (1837), II. 10. This is the fee-fa-fum style of rhetoric, of great force in Parliament and the nursery.
a. 1850. M. F. Ossoli, At Home & Abroad (1860), 400. It is they who invent all the ‘fe, fo, fum’ stories about Italy.
1855. Browning, Men & Wom., I. Lover’s Quarrel, 16.
| I would laugh like the valiant Thumb | |
| Facing the castle glum | |
| And the giant’s fee-faw-fum! |
1890. Review of Reviews, II. Dec., 538/2. That is all fee faw fum.
3. Used to express ‘a blood-thirsty person.’
1678. Dryden, Limberham, V. i. That Fe-fa-fum of a Keeper wou’d have smelt the Blood of a Cuckold-maker: they say, he was peeping and butting about in every cranny.
1824. S. E. Ferrier, The Inheritance, xiv. The organ of destructiveness is always so strong with me at this hour, and I feel so much of the fee fa fum about me, that I can scarcely ask you to trust yourself with me.
Hence Fee-faw-fumish a.
1846. Geo. Eliot, Lett., in Life, ii. 81. The note in this proof sounds just as fee-fo-fum-ish as the other without any translation.
