Chapter Fian to Field of the Cloth of Gold of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

called because he, at one time, was playing a fiddle or viole with others in the house of John Hingston when Cromwell was one of the guests.
    Fiddler is a slang word for sixpence.

Fiddler's Fare or Fiddler's Pay. Meat, drink, and money.

Fiddler's Green The land of the leal or "Dixie Land" of sailors; where there is perpetual mirth, a fiddle that never ceases to untiring dancers, plenty of grog, and unlimited tobacco.

Fiddler's Money A silver penny. The fee given to a fiddler at a wake by each dancer.

Fiddler's News Stale news carried about by wandering fiddlers.

Fiddlestick In the Great German epic called The Nibelungen-Lied, this word is used six or eight times for a broadsword.

"His fiddlestick he grasped, `twas massy, broad, and long,
As sharp as any razor." Stanza 1,841.

"My fiddlestick's no feather; on whom I let it fall,
If he has friends that love him, 'twill set them weeping all." Stanza 1,880.

"His fiddlestick, sharp-cutting, can hardest steel divide,
And at a stroke can shiver the morion's beamy pride." Stanza 2,078.

Fiddlesticks! An exclamation signifying what you say is not worth attention. To fiddle about is to waste time, fiddling. A fiddlestick is the instrument used in fiddling, hence the fiddlestick is even less than the fiddle.

Fidele (3 syl.). The name assumed by Imogen in Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Collins has a beautiful elegy on Fidele.

Fidelio Beethoven's only opera. (See Leonora .)

Fides The goddess of Faith, etc.

Fides (2 syl.). Mother of John of Leyden. Not knowing that her son was the "prophet" and ruler of Westphalia, but thinking that the prophet had caused his death, she went to Munster to curse the new-crowned monarch. The moment she saw him she recognised him, but the "prophet-king," surrounded by his courtiers, pretended not to know her. Fides, to save her son annoyance, declared she had made a mistake, and was confined in the dungeon of the palace at Munster, where John visited her and was forgiven. When her son set fire to his palace, Fides rushed into the flames and perished with him. (Meyerbeer's opera of Le Prophète.)

Fides Carbonarii Blind faith, faith of a child. A carbonaro being asked what he believed, replied, "What the Church believes;" and, being asked again what the Church believes, made answer, "What I believe." (See Carbonari.) (Roux: Dictionnaire Comique.)

Field (Anglo-Saxon, feld.)
   In agricultural parlance, a field is a portion of land belonging to a farm.
   In huntsman's language, it means all the riders.
   In heraldry, it means the entire surface of the shield.
   In military language, it means a battle; the place where a battle is fought, or is about to be fought; a campaign.
   In sportsmen's language it means all the horses of any one race.
   Against the field. In horse-racing, to bet against the field means to back a particular horse against all the rest entered for the race.
   In the field. A competitor for a prize. A term in horse-races, as, so-and-so was in the field. Also in war, as, the French were in the field already.
   Master of the field. In military parlance, means the conqueror in a battle.
   To keep back the field, is to keep back the riders.
   To take the field. To move the army preparatory to battle.
   To win the field. To win the battle.

Field-day Day of business. Thus, a clergyman jocosely calls a "kept festival" his field-day. A military term, meaning a day when a regiment is taken to the fields for practice.