Forms: 4–6 festu(e, (6 -ew, -ure, -we, 7 -er), 6 fe(e)skew, 7 fes(t)kue, 8 fescu, 8–9 fesque, 9 dial. vester, 6– fescue. [a. OF. festu (Fr. fétu) a straw:—popular L. *festūcum = class. L. festūca. Cf. Pr. festuc masc., festuca, festuga fem., It. festuco masc., festuca fem.]
† 1. A straw, rush, twig; a small piece of straw, a mote in the eye (with ref. to Matt. vii. 3). Hence, a thing of little importance. Obs.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 278.
| Þe beem lithe in ȝowre eyghen, | |
| And þe festu is fallen · for ȝoure defaute, | |
| In alle manere men. |
1382. Wyclif, Matt. vii. 3. What seest thou a festu. or a litil mote, in the eiȝe of thi brother.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 163/1. Fyschelle of fyschew, or festu, festuca.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 400 b/1. He demaunded hym of the festue and of the beme.
1592. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., 54. A meete qualitie for jett, or a pretty feate for amber, to iuggle chaffe, festues, or the like weighty burdens.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 720.
| Well rubbed and enchaus’d thereby, thin strawes and fescues small | |
| That are neere hand it drawes thereto. |
2. A small stick, pin, etc., used for pointing out the letters to children learning to read; a pointer.
1513. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp., Canterb. Payd for iiij festewys iijd.
1533. More, Answ. Poysoned Bk., Wks. 1102/1. I shall … lay it afore him agayn, and sette htm to it with a festue, that he shall not say but he saw it.
1589. Nashe, Martins Months Minde, 7. Though their fescue euen then pointed at Capitall letters.
1612. The Two Noble Kinsmen, II. ii.
| 3 Coun. Ay, do but put | |
| A feskue in her fist, and you shall see her | |
| Take a new lesson out, and be a good wench. |
1714. Gay, What d’ye call it, I i. 8.
| Alack! I knew him when he suck’d the breast, | |
| Taught him his catechism, the fescue held, | |
| And join’d his letters, when the bantling spell’d. |
1762. Foote, Orator, I. Wks. 1799, I. 197. The fescues and fasces, which have been, from time immemorial, consigned to one, or more, matron in every village, ravished at once from their hands, and delivered over to the administration of the opposite sex.
1825. J. Jennings, Dial. W. Eng., Gloss. 71. Vester … a fescue.
1876. Browning, Pacchiarotto, 19.
| Emboldened by triumph of recency, | |
| How could he do other with decency | |
| Play schoolmaster, point as with fescue | |
| To each and all slips in Man’s spelling | |
| The law of the land? |
fig. 1644. [see FERULAR].
1648. Earl Westmrld., Otia Sacra (1879), 53.
| As Appetite, | |
| Not Reasons Fescue shall direct. |
† 3. transf. (nonce-uses.) a. The shadow on a sundial. b. A plectrum for use with the harp or lyre.
1607. W[entworth] S[mith], Puritaine, IV. 47. The feskewe of the Diall is vpon the Chrisse-crosse of Noone.
1616. Chapman, Homer’s Hymn to Apollo, 288.
| And with thy golden fescue play’dst upon | |
| Thy hollow harp, that sounds to heaven set gone. |
4. More fully fescue-grass: A genus (Festuca) of grasses. Hard, Sheep’s, Meadow Fescue: translations of the botanical names of species, F. duriuscula, ovina, pratensis.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xiii. 138–9. Sheep’s fescue is a well known grass, always to be found in dry pastures, and sheep-commons. Ibid., 139. Meadow Fescue, one of the best grasses for cultivation, has a culm for two feet high, leaves rough to the touch, large loose panicles, the spicules acuminate, smooth, varying in the number of flowers from six to eight.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 187. Fesque grass (Festuco) many species.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., viii. (1814), 362. Tall fescue grass stands highest, according to the experiments of the Duke of Bedford, of any grass, properly so called, as to the quantity of nutritive matter afforded by the whole crop when cut at the time of flowering.
1854. J. D. Hooker, Himalayan Journals, II. xxiv. 176. A flock of 400 hornless sheep, grazing on short sedges and fescue-grass, in the middle of October, at 18,000 feet above the sea.
1855. Morton, Cycl. Agric., 863/2, s.v. Festuca, The hard fescue.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 530.
| Sweeping the frothfly from the fescue brush’d | |
| Thro’ the dim meadow toward his treasure-trove. |
