| 释义 |
fee-faw-fum|fiːfɔːfʌm|
Also 7 fie foh fumme, 8 fe fi fo fum, 7–9 fee fa fum.
1. The first line of doggerel spoken by the giant in the nursery tale of ‘Jack the giant killer’ upon discovering the presence of Jack.
1605Shakes. Lear iii. iv. 188 His word was still fie, foh, and fumme, I smell the blood of a British man. 1711Chap-bk., Jack & the Giants 11, Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum I smell the Blood of an English Man.
2. a. An exclamation indicating a murderous intention. b. Nonsense, fitted only to terrify children. Also attrib.
1690Dryden Amphitryon ii. i, The bloody villain is at his fee, fa, fum, already. 1811Lexicon Balatronicum, I am not to be frightened by fee, faw, fum. 1825Macaulay Milton Ess. 1854 I. 12 They have..none of the fee-faw-fum of Tasso and Klopstock. 1830A. Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Administ. (1837) II. 10 The fee-fa-fum style of rhetoric. a1850M. F. Ossoli At Home & Abroad (1860) 400 It is they who invent all the ‘fe, fo, fum’ stories about Italy. 1855Browning Men & Women I. Lover's Quarrel 16 The valiant Thumb Facing the castle glum And the giant's fee-faw-fum! 1890Review of Reviews II. 538/2 This is all fee-faw-fum.
3. Used to express ‘a blood-thirsty person’.
1678Dryden Limberham v. i, That Fe-fa-fum of a Keeper wou'd have smelt the Blood of a Cuckold-maker. 1824S. E. Ferrier Inher. xiv, I feel so much of the fee, fa, fum about me, that I can scarcely ask you to trust your⁓self with me.
Hence fee-faw-fumish a.
1846Geo. Eliot Let. in Life ii. 81 The note in this proof sounds just as fee-fo-fumish as the other. |