Browse phrases beginning with: [A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][R][S][T][U,V][W][X,Y,Z] By hook or by crookMeaning By any means possible - fair or foul. Origin It is sometimes suggested that this derives from a custom in mediaeval England of allowing peasants to take any deadwood from the royal forest that they could reach with a shepherd's crook or a reaper's billhook. That's just one of the many suggested derivations. Another commonly repeated suggestion is that it comes from Hook Head and nearby village of Crook, in Waterford, Ireland. Those stories, nor any of the others that I won't bore you with, have any evidence to support them - apart from some reference to hooks and crooks. Crooks were the curved or hooked sticks that shepherds used to catch the hind legs of sheep. Hook was a synonym for crook. It is likely that the two words were put together to mean 'by one means or another' for no better reason than the alliteration. The earliest references to hooks and crooks date back to the 14th century - the first known being from John Gower's Confessio Amantis, 1390:
None of the early citations make any reference to wood gathering or Ireland, which we might expect them to if either were really the origin. |