# fettle
## English
### Etymology

From Late Middle English fetlen (“(verb) to bestow; to fix, prepare, put in place; to prepare (oneself) for battle, gird up; to shape; to be about to, or to ready (oneself) to stay; (adjective) shaped (well or poorly)”) [and other forms], which possibly:
* from Old English fetel (“belt, girdle, fettle”), from Proto-Germanic *fatilaz, further etymology unknown; or
* from Old English fetian (“to fetch”), from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną (“to fetch”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“foot”).
Compare Old English ġefetelsod (“provided with a belt; trimmed, polished, ornamented”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈfɛtl̩/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛtəl
* Hyphenation: fet‧tle

### Noun

fettle (plural fettles)
* A state of physical condition; kilter or trim.
** 1979 August, P. R. G. Kennard, “Polish Steam Panorama”, in Railway World, page 421:These strong 2-8-2s […] appeared in good fettle, especially those shedded at Lublin and several arrivals and departures were photographed in the fine evening light.
* One's mental state; spirits.
* Sand used to line a furnace.
* (ceramics) A seam line left by the meeting of mould pieces.
* (UK, dialectal) The act of fettling.
* (Cumbria, Geordie) A person's mood or state, often assuming the worst.
    What’s yer fettle marra?

#### Usage notes

Outside of dialects, this noun is a fossil, found only in the phrase in fine fettle; but the verb and the corresponding gerund remain in common use in British English (for example, "this will need a bit of fettling to get sorted").

#### Derived terms

* in fine fettle

#### Translations
### Verb

fettle (third-person singular simple present fettles, present participle fettling, simple past and past participle fettled)
* (especially Northern England) To sort out, to fix, to mend, to repair.
    Coordinate terms: fiddle, fiddle with
** 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, chapter VI, in Capricornia‎, page 83:For some time after the train had gone Oscar stood on the track conversing with members of the fettling gang […]
* (intransitive) To make preparations; to put things in order; to do trifling business.
** c. 1600, John Ayliffe, Satires:Nor list he now go whistling to the car, But sells his team , and fettleth to the war
* (transitive) To line the hearth of a furnace with sand prior to pouring molten metal.
* (reflexive, Geordie) To be upset or in a bad mood.
    Divint fettle yersel ower that!
* (ceramics) To remove (as by sanding) the seam lines left by the meeting of two molds.
* (transitive, engineering) To machine away seam lines or more generally to make small adjustments to a component or machine to improve its fit or operation.
    He wants to fettle his gearchange mechanism before the next competition.
* (transitive, archaic) To prepare.
** 1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet:But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next...

#### Derived terms

* fettler
* fettling
* refettle
* unfettled

#### See also

* fash

### References

* ↑ “fetlen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “fettle, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “fettle, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Further reading

* Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
* “fettle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “fettle”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎, archived from the original on 2024-09-05.
* Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977
* Frank Graham, editor (1987), “FETTLE”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
* “Fettle”, in Palgrave’s Word List: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎, archived from the original on 2024-09-05, from F[rancis] M[ilnes] T[emple] Palgrave, A List of Words and Phrases in Everyday Use by the Natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham […] (Publications of the English Dialect Society; 74), London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1896, →OCLC.