foumart
(ˈfʊmət)
Forms: 4 folmarde, 5 ful(e)merd(e, -mert, 5–6 -mard(e, 5–7 -mer(e, (5 -mare), 5 fullimart, 6 fullymart, 7 ful-, 7–8 fuli-, 7–9 foul(e)mart, 5–7 fow-, 7, 9 fu-, 8, 9 foomart, (6 foumerd, 7 fummer, 8 formet), 8– foumart.
[ME. fulmard:—OE. *f{uacu}l mearð (f{uacu}l, foul a. + mearð marten).]
1. The polecat (Putorius fœtidus).
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 534 Þe fox & þe folmarde to þe fryth wyndez. c 1450 Chester Pl., Noah's Flood 170 (Pollard), Atter and foxe, fullimartes alsoe. 1486 Bk. St. Albans B vij b, That no fulmertis nor fecheus ne other vermyn com nott in to hir. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §146 To se that they be well kepte from..fully martes & other vermin. a 1592 H. Smith Serm. (1622) 102 Vsurers..lurke about the City like Rats, and Wesels, and Fulmers. 1772 T. Simpson Vermin Killer 23 The Polecat, Fitchat, Fitchew, Formet. The same animal called by different names in different countries. 1815 Scott Guy M. xxii, ‘Sicken a day as we had wi' the foumarts and the tods.’ 1863 N. Macleod Remin. Highland Par. iii, Rats, fumarts, wild cats [etc.]. |
b. Used as a term of contempt or opprobrium.
| 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 517 Fowmart, fasert, fostirit in filth and fen. a 1605 Montgomerie Flyting w. Polwart 69 False fecklesse foulmart, loe heere a defyance! 1633 B. Jonson Tale of Tub i. iv, You stote! Was ever such a fulmart for an huisher, To a great worshipful lady, as myself! 1892 J. Payn Mod. Dick Whittington I. 112 He and that foulmart, the parson, have just gone. |
2. attrib., as foumart-hunt, foumart-skin; foumart-dog, a dog used for hunting the foumart.
| 1612 Sc. Bk. Customs in Halyburton Ledger (1867) 329 Skins called..Fowmart skins. c 1746 J. Collier (Tim Bobbin) Lanc. Dial. Wks. (1862) 52 Mezzil fease..gran like a Foomurt-Dog. 1855 Waugh Lanc. Sketches, Heywood, etc. (1869) 182 Now and then a foomart-hunt takes place. |