Forms: 1 fel(l, 2–7 fel, 3–6 felle, 2– fell. Also 3–4 vel, velle. [Com. Teut.: OE. fel, fell str. neut., OFris. fel, OS. fel (Du. vel), OHG. fel (MHG. vel, mod.Ger. fell), ON. (ber-) flall, Goth, (þruts-) fill n.:—OTeut. *fello(m:—pre-Teut. *pello- :—*pelno-, cognate with Gr. πέλλα, Lat. pellis skin; a derivative from the same root is FILM.]
1. The skin or hide of an animal: a. with the hair, wool, etc.
Beowulf, 2088 (Gr.). Sio wæs orþoncum eall ȝeȝyrwed … dracan fellum.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 334 Nim mereswines fel.
c. 1175. Cott. Hom., 225. God ham ȝeworhta þa reaf of fellan and hi were mid þan fellen ȝescridde.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 135. For his fel he [neddre] ðer leteð.
1340. Ayenb., 210. Zuych difference ase þer is be-tuene … þe uelle and þe beste.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, III. 24. The herte … ffedith him on þe venym · his ffelle to anewe.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 5083. Sum fellis of fischis.
c. 1483. Caxton, Vocab., 9 b.
| Of shepes fellis | |
| May be made the basenne. |
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop. (Arb.), 98. They carie furth into other countreis great plentie: as grayne, honnie, wulle, flaxe, woode, madder, purple died felles, waxe, tallowe, lether, and lyuinge beastes.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., vii. 104.
| At Lemster, for her Wooll whose Staple doth excell, | |
| And seems to over-match the golden Phrygian Fell. |
1757. Dyer, Fleece (1807), 68.
| But in loose locks of fells she most delights, | |
| And feeble fleeces of distempered sheep. |
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., I. viii. 37. The Horse I ride has his own whole fell.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 6.
| Who had a lion’s skin cast over him, | |
| So wrought with gold that the fell showed but dim | |
| Betwixt the threads. |
† b. as distinguished from the hair, etc. Obs.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 418. Uelles wel i-tauwed.
1436. Political Poems (Rolls), II. 168.
| Moreovere of Scotlonde the commoditees | |
| Ar ffelles, hydes, and of wolle the ffleesse. |
1581. W. Stafford, Exam. Compl., ii. (1876), 51. Of our felles they make Spanish skins, Gloues, and Girdels.
1615. T. Adams, Lycanthropy, 20. His fell good, his fleece good, his flesh good.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, V. 294.
| For he was laid in white Sheeps Wool, | |
| New pull’d from tanned Fells, | |
| And o’er his Head hang’d Spiders Webbs, | |
| As if they had been Bells. |
c. Proverbs.
1548. Hall, Chron. (1809), 106. The old Proverbe … which saieth ‘If Shepe ronne wilfully emongest Wolves they shall lese ether Life or Fell.’
1579. Gosson, The Schoole of Abuse (Arb.), 20. The calmest Seas hide dangerous Rockes: the Woolf iettes in Weathers felles.
2. Said of the human skin, rarely of the skin covering an organ of the body. Often in phr. Flesh and fell: see FLESH. Now only as transf. from 1.
c. 1000. Juliana, 591 (Gr.). Næs … ne feax ne fel fyre ȝemæled.
c. 1200. Ormin, 8591. I fell & flæsh wiþþuten dæþ.
a. 1300. Sarmun, vi., in E. E. P. (1862), 2. Þi velle þat is wiþ-oute.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 247. An evel þat was bytwene vel and flesche.
c. 1450. Life of St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 6076. In synnes, in Ioyntes, in fell, and flessh.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 19 b. Cardiaca is a disease of trembling of the harte when it trembleth leapeth and beateth by reason of the humors that are gathered within the celles or felles that enuiron the harte.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 239. That kind of dropsy wherein water runneth between the fell and the flesh.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 23. ‘Miserable indeed,’ says he, ‘was the condition of the Aboriginal Savage, glaring fiercely from under his fleece of hair, which with the beard reached down to his loins, and hung round him like a matted cloak; the rest of his body sheeted in its thick natural fell.
1890. H. M. Stanley, in Times, 6 May. A light brown fell stood out very clearly.
fig. a. 1225. Ancr. R., 120. Nis þer, þeonne, bute vorworpen sone þet ruwe vel abute þe heorte.
† b. ‘The flesh immediately under the skin’ (Burns, Gloss.). Obs.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Dk. Gloucester, xiii.
| Least yf the Cat be curst, or not tamed well, | |
| She haply with her nayles may clawe hym to the fell. |
1567. Turberv., Epitaphes, etc., 108 b.
| How may a man forget | |
| the coale that burnes within, | |
| Augmenting still his secret sore | |
| by piercing fell and skin? |
1786. Burns, Ordination, xii. 5.
| See, how she peels the skin an’ fell, | |
| As ane were peelin onions! |
3. A covering of hair, wool, etc., esp. when thick and matted; a fleece. Often in phr. a fell of hair, a head or shock of hair.
1600. Shaks., As You Like It, III. ii. 55. Cor. Why we are still handling our Ewes, and their Fels you know are greasie.
| Ibid. (1605), Macb., V. v. 11. | |
| My Fell of haire | |
| Would at a dismall Treatise rowze, and stirre | |
| As life were in’t. |
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), I. 162. A Sheepskyn accordinge to the growth of the fell.
1842. N. A. Woods, Tour Canada, 14. Their flat Tartar features half hidden under a fell of coarse, unkempt hair.
1844. Lowell, Columbus.
| O days whose memory tames to fawning down | |
| The surly fell of Ocean’s bristled neck! |
1872. Lowell, Dante, Prose Wks. 1890, IV. 204, note. Reason (Virgil) first carries him down by clinging to the fell of Satan.
4. attrib. and Comb., as fell-rot (Sc.), -ware, -wound. Also fell-ill Sc. (see quot.); fell-poake Sc., waste clippings or parings resulting from the preparation of skins (used for manure); fell-wool (see quot. 1888), and FELL-MONGER.
1798. R. Douglas, Agric. Roxb., 149. Aged cattle … are liable to be hide round, a disease known here … by the name of the *fell-ill.
a. 1803. J. Gretton, in A. Hunter’s Georg. Ess. (1803), III. 139. If you mean to have a potatoe crop, get your *fell-poake on your head-land by the latter end of October at the farthest.
1799. Ess. Highland Soc., III. 465. Many different kinds of rot … as the … *fell-rot, the bone-rot and other rots.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, III. 150. Ffurris of ffoyne and oþer *ffelle-ware.
1552. Act 5–6 Edw. VI., c. 6 § 1. Mingling *Fell-wool and Lambs-wool … with Fleece-wool.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 278. This Fell wool they separate into five or six sorts.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Felt-wool, the wool pulled from sheep-skins in distinction from the fleece wool shorn from the living animal.
1382. Wyclif, Lev. xiii. 19. In the place of the bocche aperith a *fel wounde [Lat. cicatrix]. Ibid. (1382), Jer. xxx. 17. Y schal helen parfitly thi felle wounde to thee.
