Fetch (Hastings' Dictionary)

To fetch ia to cause to corns, as Fuller, Holy Warre, 230, ' If they should say the Templars were burned wrongfully, they may be fetched over the coals themselves for charging his Holinesse so deeply ' ; and this meaning is easily seen in most of its phrases. 1. Fetch up, 1 S 6" 7>. So Shaks. Ant. and Cleop. rv. XV. 35— ' Had I great Juno's power. The atrong-wing'd Mercury should fetoh thee up, And set thee by Jove's side.' 2. /V<fAff(7firm,t.e.

cause to come back (see AGAIN): 1 Es 4** ' Swift is the sun in his course, for he com- pisseth the heavens round about, and fetcheth his course again to his own place in one day' (TraXiK diroTpixd). Cf. Bunyan, Holu Citie, 252, ' Revivings that (like Aquavitfe) do fetch again, and chear up the soul' ; and Tindale, Exposition.^, 165, ' He will return again unto his mercy, and fetch his power home again, which he lent to vex thee.' 3.

Fetch nhout: 2 S 14™ 'To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing' (3zp inyj'? i;;n 'isry, lit. ' for the purpose of bringing round the face of the business,' or as RV ' to change the face of the matter'). See About, and cf. Shaks. K. John, IV. ii. 24 — * Like a shifted wind onto a sail, It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about.' Bacon, Essays, ' Of Cunnin" ' (Gold. Treas. ed. p. 95, 1.

5), ' It is strange, how long some men wUl he in wait, to speake somewhat tliey desire to say : and how farre about they will fetch ; and how many other Matters they will beat over to come near it.' i. Fetch a compass, i.e. 'make a circuit,' instead of going in a straight line. Thus Fuller, Pi.if/ah Sight, IV. ii. 43, ' \Vicked men may for a time retard, not finally obstruct our access to happiness.

It is but fetching a compass, making two steps for one ; a little more pains and patience will do the deed.' The Heb. is simply the verb 355 sAhhabh, which means to make a turning or a circuit. RV gives 'turn about' in Nu 34°, Jos 15', and 'make a circuit' in 2 S 5=», 2K 3». The Gr. is Trf/w^pxoMO'. go round about, Ac 28" (RV 'make a circuit').* In 'fetch a compass' as in 'fetch about' the idea of the circuitous route is not in the verb, but in its complement.t SSce Compass.

Similar jihrases are found, as T. Adams, // Peter, 54, ' Merchants would give much to know a short cut to those remote places of traffic, without passing straits or fetching bouts'; Fuller, IIulij Wnrre, p. '29, 'As if sensible of his sad fate, and desirous to deferre what he cannot avoid, he [the .Ionian] fetcheth many turnings and wind- ings, but all will not excuse lam from falling into 'he Dead sea.' 3. Fetch a stroke, l)t I'.l' • his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe.'

So I'uller, llohj Wnrre, 219, ' Being about to fetch another stroke, the IVince with his foot gaue him such a blow that he felled him to the ground ' ; and Bunj-an, Holy ' liightfnot (Frfffi lifvixion^ 193)Rayt, 'We have heard how the inquiring schnoH'oy has bt'cn perplexed at reading tliut St. Paul anil his conipaiiinns " futcliefl a ivnnpai*s" when they set sail (roni Syracuse (Ac 'Ji>'^), not being able to reconcile this state- ment with the date given for the invention of this instninient.'

t Fuller, Unttj H'nrrf, p. 119, saj-s. ' His navie he sent about by .SjMiin ' : then on p. 120. ' behold his nokvie there safely arriving, which with much dilBcultie and danger had fetclied a ccmituas about Spain.' IVar (Clar. Press ed. p. 47, I. 20), ' If I fetch my blow, Mnnsoul, down you go.' 6. Fetch one^a breath. Sir SI'" 'he fetcheth not his wind short upon his bed ' (oiiK aaBfialvd., RV ' he doth not breathe hard'). Cf. Shaks. 1 Henry IV. II. iv. 579, ' Hark, how hard he fetches breath.

Search his pockets ' ; and Troilus, III. ii. 23, ' She does so blush, and fetches her wind so short, as if she were frayed with a sprite: I'll fetch her. It is the prettiest villain : she fetches her breath so short as a new-ta'en sparrow.' In Old English there were two distinct verbs, fet and /etch. Fet seems to have been the older of the two. Indeed, Bradley (,Ox,f. Eng. Diet. s.v. 'Fetch') beheves that Piatt and Sievers are right in deriving fetch from fet by a singular series of changes.

The i of the oldest form/efi-anbecameaconsonantal y, then this ty being sounded as <x became written so, and cc easily passed into the spelling ch. Cf. ort-yeard, in Old Eng. orchard, now orchard. Fet and Fetch were synonymous In meaning, aa we may see from Tindale, whose tm (1534) of Mt 24i'- is &, ' And let him which is on the housse toppe not come downe to fet (.ccpau) eny thinge out of his housse. Nether let him which is in the felde retume backe to fetche (J^m) his clothes.'

Fet gradually gave way to fetch. In the Geneva version of 1660 it is found "in the imperat., 1 S 2031 ' wherefore now send and fet him vnto me, for he shal surely dye,' and in the indie, Dt 19'^ 'Then the Elders of his citie shal send and fet him thence.' And even in AV of 1611 the infin. is once employed, Jer 3621 *So the king sent lehudi to fet the roule.' But after the Old Eng. period the word was used chiefly in the past tense and past ptcp.

, as an alternative with ' fetcht ' or ' fetched,' and that is its use else- where in AV. In the 1611 ed. of AV ' fet' occurs 9 times (2 S 05 Hi", 1 K "13 928, 2 K IIJ, 2 Ch 12", Jer 2623 3621, Ac 2813) ; ' fetcht' 6 times (Gn 187, 1 S 71, 2 S 142, 2 K 39, 2 Ch 117) ; and ' fetched ' 6 tunes (Gn 18-' 27H, Jos IW, Jg 1818, i g 1022, 2 s 48). In course of time, chiefly through the influence of Dr. Paris (1762) and Dr. Blayney (1709), 'fet' was banished from AV. In his Cam*.

Paragraph Bible of 1873, Scrivener restored it to all its original places, and Scrivener's text is used in the Camb. Bible fnr Schools and Colleges. But the Camb. and Oxf. Parallel Bibles do not use it once. They use even 'fetcht' only once, Gn 1^7; elsewhere always ' fetched.* J. HASTINGS.