Forms: 5 fechu, fychew, (plural fecheus, fychews, -eux), 6 fechowe, ficheuxe, fitchewe, 7 fitcholl, fitchaw, 8 fi(t)cher, fitchole, 4– fitchew. [a. OF. fissel (pl. fissiaulx), later fissau (Colgr.), a diminutive formation on the word which appears in Du. of 16–17th c. as fisse, visse, vitsche (see Kilian and Hexham).]
1. A foumart, polecat.
1418. E. E. Wills (1882), 34. My furre of Fycheux.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, B vij b. That no fulmertis nor fecheus … com nott in to hir.
1587. Harrison, England, III. iv. (1878), II. 25. I might here intreat largelie of other vermine, as the polecat, miniuer, the weasell, stote, fulmart, squirrill, fitchew, and such like.
1688. in A. L. Humphreys, Hist. Wellington (1889), 125. Pd. for killing of a fitcholl and a hedgehogg 8d.
1752. Sir J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 547. They all call it by the same name Mustela; we, the Weasel, the Foumart, or the Fitchet.
1787. Grose, Provinc. Gloss., Fitchole, a polecat, fitchet or ficher.
1788. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Peter’s Pension, Wks. 1812, II. 18.
| I’m told your Sheep have died by dogs and bitches, | |
| And that your Fowls have suffer’d by the fitchews. |
1885. Encycl. Brit., XIX. 332/1. To this [its fetid smell] it [the polecat] is indebted for its generic name Putorious … and its other English names fitchet, fitchew.
b. Used as a term of contempt.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. i. 150. Cas. ’Tis such another Fitchew.
2. The fur of the polecat.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 295. A cote haþ he furred Wiþ foyns or wiþ fitchewes oþer fyn beuer.
1493. Will of Squyer (Somerset Ho.). Penulatam cum fychew pollys.
1502. Will of Grene (Somerset Ho.). (Gown furred with) Ficheuxe.
1534. in Weaver, Wells Wills (1890), 98. My gowne furryd with ffechowe.
1721. Bailey, Fitchow, a Pole-cat … also the skin of it.
