Fellen

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic form of the verb meaning to cut down a tree or bring something to the ground
2. Old-fashioned past form of a verb meaning to strike or chop something so that it drops to the ground
3. Archaic verb form describing the act of cutting down or knocking something over so it falls

Etymology: "Fellen" was a verb meaning "to cause to fall," the causative partner of "fall." Old English had "fellan," which came from the same Germanic root as "feallan," "to fall," and it followed the same pattern as "set" beside "sit" or "lay" beside "lie." Its descendant, the modern verb "fell," meaning to cut down a tree or knock something over, still preserves that sense of making something drop. The word also helps explain a common confusion. The past tense of "fall" is "fell," but that comes from a different Old English form, "feoll," which developed from the verb "feallan." The two "fells" share an ancestor but took separate paths, so English ended up with two unrelated-looking verbs spelled the same way. "Fellen" itself faded from standard use in the late Middle English period, and its work was taken over by the modern "fell."