Chapter First-fruits to Fixt of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Fish and Flesh You must not make fish of one and flesh of the other. You must treat both alike. Fish is an inferior sort of animal food to flesh. The alliteration has much to do with the phrase.

Fish in Troubled Water (To). In French, "Pêcher en eau troublé. " To scramble for personal advantage in times of rebellion, revolution, or national calamity.

Fish it Out (To). This is the Latin expiscor.

Fish out of Water Out of place; without one's usual occupation; restless from lack of employment.

Fisher of Souls (The great). The devil.

"I trust, young man, that neither idleness nor licentious pleasure ... the chief baits with which the great Fisher of souls conceals his hooks, are the causes of your declining the career to which I would incite you." - Sir W. Scott: The Monastery, chap.xi.

Fisherman The fisherman who was father of three kings. Abu Shujah al Bouyah was a Persian fisherman in the province of Delem', whose three sons, Imad, Ruken, and Moez, all rose to sovereign power.

Fishing Fishing for compliments. Laying a bait for praise.

Fisk (in Hudibras) was Nicholas Fisk, a physician and astrologer, who used to say that a physician never deserved his bread till he had no teeth to eat it. In his old age he was almost a beggar.

Fitz (Norman). Son of; as Fitz-Herbert, Fitz-William, Fitz-Peter, etc. It is sometimes applied to illegitimate children, as Fitz-Clarence, Fitz-roy, etc.

Fitz-Fulke (Hebe). "A gracious, graceful, graceless grace;" "fat, fair, and forty." ( Byron: Don Juan, canto xvi.)

Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge University). So called from Earl Fitz-william, who left £100,000 with books, paintings, etc., to form the nucleus of a museum for the benefit of the university.

Five or the pentad, the great mystic number, being the sum of 2 + 3, the first even and first odd compound. Unity is God alone, i.e. without creation. Two is diversity, and three (being 1 + 2) is the compound of unity and diversity, or the two principles in operation since creation, and representing all the powers of nature.

Five-minute Clause A provision sometimes inserted in deeds of separation, whereby it is stipulated that the deed is null and void if the husband and wife remain together five minutes after the separation is enjoined.

Five Nations (The). The five confederated Indian tribes, viz. the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. Known as the Iroquois Confederacy.

Five Points (The). (See Calvinism .)

Five Wits (1) Common sense, (2) imagination, (3) fantasy, (4) estimation, and (5) memory. Common sense is the outcome of the five senses; imagination is the "wit" of the mind; fantasy is imagination united with judgment; estimation estimates the absolute, such as time, space, locality, and so on; and memory is the "wit" of recalling past events.

"Four of his five wits went halting off."
Shakespeare: Much Ado, etc., i.1.

"These are the five witts removyng inwardly:
First, `Common witte,' and then `Ymagination,'
`Fantasy,' and `Estimation' truely.
And `Memory.' "
Stephen Hawes: The Passe-tyme of Plesure (1515).

    Notwithstanding this quotation, probably the Five Wits mean the wits of the five senses.