fewte

English

Etymology

From Middle English feute, itself from Old French fuite (“the fleeing, flight”), as of what is left and seen from fleeing game.

Noun

fewte

1. (archaic) Signs left by game that is hunted, such as tracks or scent, the track itself.
   • late 1930s, JRR Tolkien, The Fall of Arthur:

     As wary as wolves through the wood stalking / to the marches rode there Mordred's hunters, / huge and hungry hounds beside them / the fewte followed fiercely baying.

   • 1968, Promptorium parvulorum sive clericorum:

     Madden likewise, in his Glossary to Gawayn, had explained “Wewter,” as denoting the huntsman who tracked the deer by the fewte or odour.

   • 2003, John Cummins, The Art of Medieval Hunting: The Hound and the Hawk, →ISBN, page 144:

     Some hounds fell on the fewte left by the fox, Using their craft to cross and cross again.

Middle English

Noun

fewte

1. Alternative form of feaute
   • 1338, Robert Manning of Brunne, The Story of England:

     Arthur þem þanked þat þey so ches; Louely tok he per alle here fewte, ffor þey come alle so wyþ wylle fre.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1464, “Cronycullys of Englonde”, in A Short English Chronicle:

     And after that he conquered all Scotlond, and made the Kynge of Scottes his liege man, to do him fewte and homage as he ought of right.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)