Feel Peckish. See “[Keep your Pecker up].”
Fellah. Arabic for agriculturist or peasant. In the plural, “El Fellahin,” the term is specifically applied to the labouring population of Egypt.
Fenchurch Street. From an ancient church in the fens or marshy ground through which ran the Lang Bourne from Beach Lane to the Wall brook behind the Stocks Market, where the Mansion House now stands.
Fenians. Said to express the Gaelic for “hunters,” but the greater likelihood is that this secret society took the name of the Finna Eirinii, ancient organisation of Irish militia, so called after Fion MacCumhal, the hero of legendary history.
Fetter Lane. A corruption of “Fewters Lane,” from the Norman-French faitour, an evil-doer, on account of the idle vagabonds who infested it in days when this lane led to some pleasure gardens.
Feuilleton. Expresses the French for a small leaf. Like the serial stories nowadays in many English newspapers, articles of a non-political character were introduced in the French Journal des Debatés as long ago as the commencement of the nineteenth century, these being separated from the news by a line towards the bottom of each page.
Fez. From Fez in Morocco, whence this red cap of the Turks was introduced into the Ottoman Empire.
F. F. V. Initials well understood in America, implying the “First Families of Virginia.”
Fiddler’s Money. A threepenny piece. Originally it was a small coin paid by each of the dancers to the fiddler at a merry-making.
Fifth Monarchy Men. Religious fanatics of the time of Charles I. who proclaimed the second coming of Christ to establish the fifth monarchy, or millennium. The four previous great monarchies of the world were the Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman.