different between fettle vs health

English

Etymology

From Middle English fetlen (“to ready, fix, arrange, prepare”), of obscure origin. Perhaps from Old English fetian (“to fetch”) or from Old English fetel (“belt, girdle”). Compare Old English ?efetelsod (“provided with a belt; trimmed, polished, ornamented”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?t?l/
• Rhymes: -?t?l

Noun

fettle (plural fettles)

1. A state of proper physical condition; kilter or trim.
2. One's mental state; spirits.
3. Sand used to line a furnace.
4. (Tyneside, Cumbria) A person's mood or state, often assuming the worst.

   What's yer fettle marra?

5. (ceramics) a seam line left by the meeting of mold pieces.
6. (Britain, dialect) The act of fettling.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

Usage notes

Outside of dialects, this term is a fossil, found only in the phrase in fine fettle.

Derived terms

• in fine fettle

Translations

Verb

fettle (third-person singular simple present fettles, present participle fettling, simple past and past participle fettled)

1. (Northern England) To sort out, to fix, to mend, to repair.
   • 1858 Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia

     He is getting his saddle altered: fettling about this and that; does not consider what danger he is in.

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter VI, p. 83, [1]

     For some time after the train had gone Oscar stood on the track conversing with members of the fettling gang […]

2. (intransitive) To make preparations; to put things in order; to do trifling business.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bishop Hall to this entry?)

3. (transitive) To line the hearth of a furnace with sand prior to pouring molten metal.
4. (reflexive, Tyneside) To be upset or in a bad mood.

   Divint fettle yersel ower that!

5. In ceramics, to remove (as by sanding) the seam lines left by the meeting of two molds.
6. (transitive, archaic) To prepare.

Derived terms

• fettler
• fettling

Translations

See also

• fash

References

• fettle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin, [2]
• Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, ?ISBN
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• A List of words and phrases in everyday use by the natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham, F.M.T.Palgrave, English Dialect Society vol.74, 1896, [3]
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[4]

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English helþe, from Old English h?lþ, from Proto-West Germanic *hailiþu, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, hale”). Cognate with Old High German heilida. Analyzable as whole +? -th, hale +? -th, or heal +? -th. More at heal.

Alternative forms

• helth, helthe, healthe (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: h?lth, IPA^(key): /h?l?/, [h?l??]
• Rhymes: -?l?

Noun

health (usually uncountable, plural healths)

1. The state of being free from physical or psychological disease, illness, or malfunction; wellness. [from 11th c.]
2. A state of well-being or balance, often physical but sometimes also mental and social; the overall level of function of an organism from the cellular (micro) level to the social (macro) level.

3. Physical condition.
4. in shape, in forme.
5. (obsolete) Cure, remedy. [16th c. (Middle English: 11th-15th c.)]
6. (countable) A toast to prosperity. [from 17th c.]
7. (video games) The amount of damage an in-game object can withstand before it is destroyed.

Derived terms

Related terms

• heal

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English heleð (“man, hero, fighter”), from Old English hæleþ (“man, hero, fighter”), from Proto-West Germanic *haliþ, from Proto-Germanic *haliþaz (“man, hero”). Cognate with West Frisian held (“hero”), Dutch held (“hero”), German Held (“hero”), Danish helt (“hero”), Swedish hjälte (“hero”), Norwegian hold (“hero”).

Alternative forms

• heleth

Noun

health (plural healths)

1. (obsolete) A warrior; hero; man.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion

     They, under false pretence of amity and cheer, the British peers invite, the German healths to view.

References

• health in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• health in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.