fetishistic 
fetishistic (fe-ti-shis'tik), a. [Also fetichistic; 
< fetish + -ist-ic.] Of, pertaining to, or char- 
acterized by fetishism; abjectly superstitious. 
Our resuscitated spirit was not a pagan philosopher nor 
a philosophizing pagan poet, but a man of the fifteenth 
century, inheriting its strange web of belief and unbelief, 
of Epicurean levity and fetichistic dread. 
George Eliot, Komola (Proem). 
Jacob Grimm was beginning those profound inductive 
researches which ended in demonstrating the fetishistic 
origin of myths. J. Fiske, Cosmic Philos., I. 177. 
fetish-man (fe'tish-man), . A man who is 
supposed to have the powers or character of a 
fetish. 
The fetish-man is bound by no law ; he recognizes no 
rules of evidence. Nineteenth Century, XXII. 801. 
fetish-snake (fe'tish-snak), n. A book-name 
of an African rock-snake, Python sebce. 
Python sebae is a form often met with in zoological gar- 
dens, where it is known as the fetich-snake. 
Stand. Nat. Hist., III. 359. 
fetlock (fet'lok), . [Also dial, fetterlock, 
fewterlock; < ME. fitlokes, feetlakkes, pi., = D. 
vitlok, vitslok (Halma, cited by Wedgwood) = 
MHG. vizzeloch, Gr. dial, fissloch, fisloch, fislach, 
fetlock, pastern. The second element is (ap- 
par.) ME. lokk, E. lock" 2 , a tuft of hair, but in 
sense 3 (and in fetterlock, 2) it is lock 1 . The 
first element is usually regarded as a form of 
foot (cf. fetter, n., and'G. fessel, a fetter, also a 
fetlock), though by some compared with Gr.fitze, 
MHG. vitze, OHG. fizza, a skein of thread or 
yarn, = Icel. feti, a strand, = Dan. fid, fed, a 
skein.] 1. A tuft of hair growing behind the 
pastern-joint of horses. 
So, underneath the belly of their steeds, 
That stain'd their fetlocks in his smoking blood, 
The noble gentleman gave up the ghost. 
Shak., 3 Hen. VI., il. 3. 
And smooth'd Ms fetlocks and his mane, 
And slack'd his girth and stripp'd his rein. 
Byron, Mazeppa, iii. 
Cheerily neighed the steeds, with dew on their manes and 
their fetlocks. Longfellow, Evangeline, i. 2. 
2. The joint on which the hair grows: same as 
fetlock-joint. 3. [Associated with foot or fet- 
ter and lock 1 .} An instrument fixed on the leg 
of a horse when put to pasture, for the purpose 
of preventing him from running off. Also/e(- 
terlock. 
The farm-horse drags his fetlock chain. 
Whittier, The Old Burying-Oround. 
fetlock-boot (fet'lok-bot), n. A covering de- 
signed to protect the fetlock and pastern of a 
horse, as from injury by interference. 
fetlocked (fet'lokt), a. 1. Having fetlocks. 
2. Tied or hobbled by the fetlock. 
Shakespeare, then, found a language already to a certain 
extent established, but not yet fetlocked by dictionary and 
grammar mongers. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 157. 
fetlock-joint (fet'lok-joint), n. The joint of a 
horse's leg next to the foot ; anatomically, the 
metacarpo- or nietatarsophalangeal articula- 
tion. In the fore limb it corresponds to the 
knuckle at the base of the middle finger. See 
cut under fetter-bone. 
fetlow (fet'16), . [A dial, form of whitlow. D. 
fljt, a whitlow, is appar. not connected.] A 
whitlow or felon in cattle. 
fetor (fe'tor), n. [L., less correctly fcetor, f(e- 
tor, a stench, < fetere, stink: see fetid.'] Any 
strong offensive smell ; stench. 
Being volatile and of strong natural odor, it [carbolic 
acid] commingles mechanically with the offensive vapors, 
and, being in excess, disguises for a time thefoztor known 
to be present. Disinfectants, p. 19. 
I have learned to prefer this flesh [seal] to the reindeer's 
at least, that of the female seal, which has not the fetor 
of her mate's. Kane, Sec. Grinn. Exp., I. 235. 
fettet, v. t. Seefefl. Chaucer. 
fetter (fet'er), . [< ME. feter, < AS. fetor, fe- 
ter = OS. feteros, fiterios, pi., = OHG. fezzera, 
MHG. vezzer, G. dial, fesser = Icel. fjoturr = 
Sw. fjetter, fetter, = Norw. fjetra, a wooden 
pin, a trunnel; akin to L. 'pedica, a fetter, 
compes (camped-), a fetter, Gr. Kefy, a fetter; 
from the orig. form of foot, AS. fot, etc., = 
L. pes (pea-) = Gr. Troi-f (nod-) = Skt. pad: see 
foot. Prob. not related to AS. fetel, a fetter, 
chain, belt, girdle, =OHG. fezsil, MHG. vezzel, 
G. fessel, a belt, sword-belt (G. fessel having 
now taken the place of fesser, in sense of fetter), 
= Norw. futul, a fetter, = Icel. fetill, a belt, 
strap. See fettle."} 1 . A chain or bar by which 
a person or an animal is confined by the foot, 
so that he is either made fast to an object or 
deprived of free motion by having one foot at- 
tached to the other; a shackle. 
2192 
They toke his feters of incontenent 
ffrom his leggis ; and whan they had so do, 
Thanne was he glad inow, and furth he went. 
Generydes (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1807. 
Who would wear fetters, though they were all of gold ? 
Dekker and Webster, Sir Thomas Wyat. 
2. Anything that confines or restrains from 
motion ; a restraint ; a check. 
Here the free spirit of mankind, at length, 
Throws its last fetters off. 
Bryant, The Ages, xxxiii. 
Does he blame the capitals, which certainly do not follow 
the exact pattern of any Vitruvian order? Let us answer 
boldly, Why should art be put in fetters! 
E. A. Freeman, Venice, p. 246. 
Human speech shook off the classic fetters ... by which 
it was long cramped, and . . . luxuriated In its new-found 
liberty. Edinburgh Rev., CLXIII. 123. 
= Syn. 1. Gyve, Manacle, etc. See shackle, n. 
fetter (fet'fer), . t. [< ME. feteren, < AS. ge- 
feterian = OHG. gifezzaron = Icel. fjotra = Sw. 
fjettra, fetter, = Norw. fjetra, fix, hold fast, 
hold spellbound ; from the noun. Cf . G. fesseln 
= Norw. futla, fetter: see fetter, n.] To put 
fetters upon; shackle or confine, as with fet- 
ters; hence, to bind; confine; restrain. 
The kyng then comaund to cacche hir belyue, 
And fetur hir fast in a fre prisoune 
A stithe house of stone to still hir of noise. 
Destruction of 7Yoy(E. E. T. S.), 1. 3518. 
You know I never fettered nor imprisoned the word re- 
ligion. Donne, Letters, xxx. 
My heels are fetter'd, but my fist is free. 
Milton, S. A., 1. 1235. 
If he call rogue and rascal from a garret, 
He means you no more mischief than a parrot : 
The words for friend and foe alike were made, 
To fetter them in verse is all his trade. 
Dryden, Abs. and Achit., ii. 428. 
And is a press that is purchased or pensioned more free 
than a press that is fettered ? 
D. Webster, Speech, Oct. 12, 1832. 
In reading Thomas Aquinas . . . one is constantly pro- 
voked to say, What could not such a mind have done if it 
had not been fettered by such a method? 
Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 90. 
fetter-bone (fet'er-bon), . [< fetter (cf. fet- 
terlock and fetlock) + bone.] The great pas- 
tern or first phalangeal 
bone of a horse's foot, 
succeeded by the coro- 
nary and coffin-bone, 
and articulating with 
the cannon-bone at the 
fetlock-joint. 
fetter-bush (fet'er- 
bush), n. An erica- 
ceous evergreen shrub, 
Andromeda nitida, of 
the pine-barrens of the 
southern United States. 
It bears numerous fra- Hind F $ c &!: showing 
grant white flowers in , lower end of metatarsus;/, 
nvillorv oliiatcra fetlock-Joint ; j, metatarsopha- 
axiliaiy ClUSrerS. langeaf sesamoid bone; /* i, 
fettered (fet'erd), I), a. proximal phalanx, or fener-bone 
.7, . . ,' -* - I lartr." Itaftfm 1 * ntictam. 
In :ool., having the feet 
stretched backward and 
feu 
apparently Unfit for the lanx. or coffin-bone, su 
purpose of walking, as SiSw' 
in the seal, or concealed 
within the integuments of the abdomen, 
fetterless (fet'er-les), a. [< fetter + -less.'] 
Free from fetters or restraint ; unfettered. 
Yet this affected strain gives me a tongue 
As fetterless as an Emperor's. 
Marxton, Malcontent, i. 4. 
fetterlock (fet'er-lok), n. [E. dial., also fewter- 
lock; a var. of fetlock, as if < fetter + lock 1 . 
See fetlock.] 1. Same as/etfoeA-,'3. 2. In her., 
a shackle or lock. The hoop of this instrument is 
sometimes represented as a band of steel, and sometimes 
as a chain. Boutell. 
Long live the Black Knight of the Fetterlock! 
Scott, Ivanhoe, xxxii. 
fettle (fet'l), r. ; pret. and pp. fettled, ppr. fet- 
tling. [< ME. (North. )fettlen, fetlen, bind, ar- 
range, prepare. Origin uncertain; perhaps 
orig. 'bind,' < AS. fetel, a belt, girdle: see/e- 
ter, n. Icel. fitla (little used), touch with the 
fingers, fidget, Sw. dial, futtla, fumble with the 
fingers, and a large number of similar forms, 
with similar senses, in LG., HG., etc., offer no 
explanation of the E. word. See fit 1 , .] I. 
trans. 1. To bind; tie up. 
In the tyxte, there thyse two [poverty and patience] arn 
in teme [team] layde, 
Hit arn fettled in on [one] forme. 
Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), iii. 38. 
2. To arrange ; prepare ; put in order; repair; 
mend. 
When hit [the ark] watz fettled and forged and to the fulle 
graythed. Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), ii. 243. 
I could fettle and clump owd booots and shoes wi' the best 
on 'em all. Tennyson, The Northern Cobbler. 
It [the world) needs fettling, and who's to fettle it? 
Mn. Gaikell. 
3. To beat; thrash. Halliicell. [Obsolete or pro- 
vincial in the foregoing senses.] 4. Toline(the 
hearth of a puddling-furnace). See fettling. 
In fettling the furnace, . . . oxide of iron bricks mould- 
ed to fit the furnace are built in and then baked in situ, and 
fettled in much the same way as Dank's furnace. 
Encyc. Brit., XIII. 324. 
Fettled ale or porter, ale or porter sweetened with 
sugar and seasoned with a little ginger and nutmeg. 
[Prov. Eng.] 
II. intrans. To potter; set about in a fussy, 
pottering way; do trifling business. [Prov. 
Eng.] 
When you [the footman] know your master is most busy 
in company, come in, and pretend to fettle about the room ; 
and if he chides, say you thought he rang the bell. 
8w\ft, Directions to Servants, iii. 
fettle (fet'l), n. [< fettle, v. In sense 2, cf. AS. 
fetel, a belt: see fettle, v.] 1. The state of be- 
ing prepared, or in good repair or condition : as, 
he is in splendid fettle to-day. [Prov. Eng.] 
It's a fine thing ... to have the chance of getting a bit 
of the country into good fettle, as they say, and putting 
men into the right way with their farming. 
George Eliot, Middlemarch, xl. 
2. A handle in the side of a large basket, llnl- 
liwell; Jamieson. [Prov. Eng. and Scotch.] 
fettle (fet'l), a. [< fettle, .] Neat; tight; 
handy. Jamieson. [Scotch.] 
fettling (fet'ling), n. In metal, the lining of 
the hearth forming the working-bed of the pud- 
dling-furnace. It was formerly made of sand, when 
dry puddling was the method employed ; but, with the pres- 
ent system of pig-boiling or wet puddling, refractory sub- 
stances rich in the oxids of iron are employed as fettling. 
See puddle, bulldog, and blue-billy. Different fettlings are 
used according to the class of iron to be produced. 
He also saturates the purple ore used as fettling with 
the saline solution. Ure, Diet., IV. 493. 
fettstein (fet'stin), . [G., lit. 'fat stone,' <fett, 
= E-fat 1 , + stein = E. stone.] The name given 
by Werner to the mineral nepheline or nephe- 
lite, in allusion to its greasy luster. It is a 
silicate of aluminium, sodium, and potassium. 
[Barely used by English authors.] 
fetuousi, a. An improper form of featous. 
feturet, >*. [< L. fetura, less correctly faelura, 
a bringing forth, brood, offspring, < y "fe, pp. 
fetus, generate, produce : see fetus.] Progeny 
or offspring. Danes. 
Some of them engendered one, some other such fetures, 
and every one in that he was delivered of was excellent 
politic, wise. Latimer, Sermons and Remains, I. 50. 
fetus (fe'tus), n. [L. fetus, less correctly foe- 
tus, a bringing forth, a bearing, hence also 
offspring, progeny (rarely of human kind), < 
fetus, a., pregnant, breeding, newly delivered, 
pp. of / "fe, "fer, generate, produce, appear- 
ing in fecitndus, fecund, femina, woman, etc., 
and in perf . fui, I was, fut. part, futurvs, future, 
= Gr. <t>i>eiv, generate, produce, Qvcadat, grow, 
= Skt. / bhu, become, be, = AS. be6n, E. be : see 
be 1 , future, fecund, female, feminine, physical, 
phyton, etc.] The young of viviparous animals 
in the womb, and of oviparous animals in the 
egg; the embryo in the later stage of develop- 
ment. See embryo. Also spelled foetus Fetus 
papyraceus, in teratol., one of a pair of twin embryos 
which has been killed and reduced to a flattened remnant 
by the growth of the other embryo. Mammary fetus, 
the undeveloped young of a marsupial animal while it re- 
mains in the pouch attached to the nipple. =Syn. See 
embryo. 
fetwa (fet'wa), n. [Also written/a<ra, fetva, 
fetvah, fetwah, repr. Ar. (whence Hind. ) fatwd, 
a judicial decision.] A declaration in writing, 
by a competent authority, of the requirements 
of the Muslim holy law in any given case. 
There is besides a collection ol all the fetwas or deci- 
sions pronounced by the different muftis. Brougham. 
feu (fu), n. [One of the forms offend?, fee : see 
feud? and/M>.] In Scots law: (a) A free and 
gratuitous right to lands granted to one for ser- 
vice to be performed by him according to the 
proper tenure thereof; specifically, a right to 
the use and enjoyment of lands, houses, or oth- 
er heritable subjects of perpetuity, in consid- 
eration of agricultural services or an annual 
payment in grain or money, called feu-duty, 
and certain other contingent burdens. This was 
anciently deemed an ignoble tenure, as distinguished from 
ward-holding, where the service rendered was purely mili- 
tary, and from blanch -holding, where it was merely nomi- 
nal, (ft) The land or piece of ground so held ; 
a fief. 
feu (fu), v. t. [< feu, .] To make a feu of ; 
vest in one who pays the annual feu-duty. 
Frequently leased orfeued out for a fixed duty. 
Encyc. Brit., IV. 63. 
