Sunday Rest: fuel. Word Not To Use Today.

Yes, the word fuel rhymes with yule, cruel, mule and drool, but I could forgive it even that if it hadn't been for the massacre of the poor word in the song. 

You know, The Song. 

The one that came out about a hundred years before deep and crisp and even was something to do with pizza.

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gathering winter fyu-oo-ell.


wood-cut by Arthur Gaskin

I don't know if there have been any fatal attacks provoked by the pious screeching of the word fuel in that Christmas Carol.

But if there have been, I wouldn't be surprised. 

Still, the word's got a neat derivation, anyway.

Word Not To Use Today: fuel. This word comes from the French feuaile, from feu, which means fire, and before that from the Latin focus which means hearth or fireplace. 

The words to Good King Wenceslas were written by John Mason Neale, in collaboration with his editor Thomas Helmore, in 1853. The tune was written in the 1200s and was originally for a song about the coming of Spring.