Forms: 4 folmarde, 5 ful(e)merd(e, -mert, 5–6 -mard(e, 5–7 -mer(e, (5 -mare), 5 fullimart, 6 fullymart, 7 ful-, 7–8 fuli-, 7–9 foul(e)mart, 5–7 fow-, 7, 9 fu-, 8, 9 foomart, (6 foumerd, 7 fummer, 8 formet), 8– foumart. [ME. fulmard:—OE. *fúl mearð (fúl, FOUL a. + mearð marten).]
1. The polecat (Putorius fœtidus).
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 534. Þe fox & þe folmarde · to þe fryth wyndeȝ.
c. 1450. Chester Pl., Noah’s Flood, 170 (Pollard). Atter and foxe, fullimartes alsoe.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, B vij b. That no fulmertis nor fecheus ne other vermyn com nott in to hir.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 146. To se that they be well kepte from gleyd, crowes, fully martes & other vermin.
1591. H. Smith, Serm. (1622), 102. These are the Vsurers generall, which lurke about the City like Rats, & Wesels, and Fulmers, of whom may be said the same which is said of the diuels, they seeke whom they may deuour.
1772. T. Simpson, Vermin-Killer, 23. The Polecat, Fitchat, Fitchew, Formet. The same animal called by different Names in different Countries; he is of a mischievious nature, will get into hen-houses, and destroy Chickens, Ducks, &c. and if possible carry them away.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxii. ‘Sicken a day as we had wi’ the foumarts and the tods.’
1863. N. Macleod, Remin. Highland Par., iii. He was also a wonderful detective of all beggars, rats, fumarts, wild cats, and vermin of every kind, smelling afar off the battle with man or beast.
b. Used as a term of contempt or opprobrium.
1508. Kennedy, Flyting w. Dunbar, 517. Fowmart, fasert, fostirit in filth and fen.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Flyting w. Polwart, 69. False fecklesse foulmart, loe heere a defyance!
1633. B. Jonson, Tale of Tub, I. iv.
| You stote! | |
| Was ever such a fulmart for an huisher, | |
| To a great worshipful lady, as myself! |
1892. J. Payn, Mod. Dick Whittington, I. 112. He and that foulmart, the parson, have just gone into the smoking-room yonder.
2. attrib., as foumart-hunt, -skin; foumart-dog, a dog used for hunting the foumart.
1612. Sc. Bk. Customs, in Halyburton, Ledger (1867), 329. Skins called … Fowmart skins.
c. 1746. J. Collier (Tim Bobbin), Lanc. Dial., Wks. (1862), 52. Mezzil fease hearink summot o’ whooup, startit to his Feet, flote none, boh gran like a Foomurt-Dog.
1853. Waugh, Lanc. Sketches, Heywood, etc. (1869), 182. Now and then, a ‘foomart-hunt’ takes place down by the water-side, with the long-eared dog, whose mingled cry, when heard from the hill-sides, sounds like a chime of bells in the distant valley.
