fell
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɛl/
rhymes: -ɛl
Forms: form: fells
Etymology: From Middle English fell, felle (“hill, mountain”), from Old Norse fell, fjall (“rock, mountain”), compare Norwegian Bokmål fjell 'mountain', Danish fjeld 'mountain', from Proto-Germanic *felzą, *fel(e)zaz, *falisaz (compare German Felsen 'boulder, cliff', Middle Low German vels 'hill, mountain'), from Proto-Indo-European *pels-; compare Irish aill (“boulder, cliff”), Ancient Greek πέλλα (pélla, “stone”), Pashto پرښه (parṣ̌a, “rock, rocky ledge”), Sanskrit पाषाण (pāṣāṇa, “stone”). Doublet of fjeld.
Senses: examples: text: Every now and then the sea calls some farmer or shepherd, and the restless drop in his veins gives him no peace till he has found his way over the hills and fells to the port of Whitehaven, and gone back to the cradling bosom that rocked his ancestors.
ref: 1886, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, The Squire of Sandal-Side : A Pastoral Romance:
text: The dwarves of yore made mighty spells, / While hammers fell like ringing bells, / In places deep, where dark things sleep, / In hollow halls beneath the fells.
ref: 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit:
text: I got out and from where I stood, high at the head, I could see all of the strangely formed cleft in the hills, its steep sides grooved and furrowed by countless streams feeding the boisterous Halden Beck which tumbled over its rocky bed far below. Down there, were trees and some cultivated fields, but immediately behind me the wild country came crowding in on the bowl where the farmhouse lay. Halsten Pike, Alstang, Birnside—the huge fells with their barbarous names were very near.
ref: 1970, James Herriot, If Only They Could Talk:
text: She didn't know at first why she stepped off the road and climbed the bank on to the fells; it wasn't until she found herself skirting a disused quarry that she realised where she was making for, and when she reached the place she stood and gazed at it. It was a hollow within an outcrop of rock, not large enough to call a cave but deep enough to shelter eight people from the rain, and with room to spare.
ref: 1971, Catherine Cookson, The Dwelling Place:
text: So the noble prince proceeded undismayed
up fells and screes, along narrow footpaths
and ways where they were forced into single file,
ledges on cliffs above lairs of water-monsters.
ref: 1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 46:
qualifier: archaic outside Northern England
glosses: A rocky ridge or chain of mountains, particularly in the British Isles or Fennoscandia.
examples: text: As over Holt and Heath, as thorough Frith and Fell;
ref: 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 11 p. 174:
text: The night continued beautifully clear and fine, and as we came into the fell country the outlines of the hills showed up dark against the starlit sky.
ref: 1948 March and April, O. S. Nock, “Scottish Night Mails of the L.M.S.R.—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 77:
text: I remember the sudden drop in the note of the station bell, as we roar through, perhaps with 16 coaches; sweep up to milepost 9½, and then, with increasing thunder from the exhaust, fairly rush the fells at Milnthorpe at the foot of the climb to Grayrigg, until the steady thunderous beat re-echoes past Mosedale Hall, still at 40 m.p.h.
ref: 1955 April, W. J. Alcock, “Unforgettable Moments”, in Railway Magazine, page 271:
text: And there are few better ways to enjoy the rugged bleakness of the fells than from a nice warm train, especially when the weather's constantly changing as the day slips away.
ref: 2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 57:
text: An artist dubbed the Borrowdale Banksy has created this slate work on a Lake District fell after past efforts were vandalised.
ref: 2023 June 29, Metro, London, page 15, column 3:
qualifier: archaic outside Northern England
glosses: A wild field or upland moor.
Derived terms: Campsie Fells
fellfield
fell runner
fell running
fellrunning
fellside
fellwalker
fellwalking
Goat Fell
Low Fell