What is the proper term and what is its origin?

Question

One failed swoop?

One Foul Swoop?

One False Swoop?

or... One fair swoop?

Which one is correct and what is the history of this saying?


I think it is "One foul swoop." and that it is English or French and alludes to the executioners ability to get off a head in "One foul swoop?"

Right or wrong?

I asked because I heard someone say "One failed swoop." on a show this morning and I knew it was wrong but after thinking about it, I honestly couldn't remember the proper term myself.

Thanks so much... You guys are brilliant! I had forgotten all about Shakespeare!

Brilliant! Bravo! Ancora!

Answer 1

It's "one fell swoop".
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/22/messages/812.html
This web site will answer the rest of your question.

Answer 2

It is clear that this is being used in two ways. Some folks just don’t know or misheard the original expression and we’ve got an example of a malapropism – “a ludicrous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound.” Others clearly know what the original expression is and we’ve got a pun. The pun actually worked well in some of the examples I saw where it was made clear that the action taken was, indeed, ‘foul.’ I guess if I were using the pun, I would probably put ‘foul’ in quotes or italics.

The original expression was "at one fell swoop" and the first use of the phrase in English appears to be in Macbeth where Shakespeare likens the murder of Macduff’s wife and children to a hawk swooping down on defenseless prey. Although ‘fell’ here meant ruthless, savage, fierce (also basis of the word ‘felon’), in the expression in/at one fell swoop it now means sudden, and the entire idiom means all at once, in a single action, as in “The new law lifted all controls in one fell swoop.”

Answer 3

One Fell Swoop Origin

Answer 4

The term is "one fell swoop". Not sure of its origin, but yes, I think it alludes to a sword stroke used decapitate a person in a single stroke. Literally, the term means to "cause something to fall in one swoop".