fettle

[prettygoodword]

fettle - n., state, condition.


Now metastasized in English in the phrase "fine fettle," but your fettle can be bad as well. It comes from the older, but now obsolete verb form, fettle, meaning to put in order, get ready, from Middle English felten, to shape, prepare, which may be related to fetch or to Old English fetel, a girdle, belt.

---L.

Comments

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

I'm back. Mostly.

And this is a good word! It's in fine fettle itself.

---L.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

What I meant was it wasn't a new word to me.

But I'm trying not to die of Martian death flu and the brain is sluggish and fuzzy.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

I'll get back to you about death after I catch up on sleep.

---L.