This post is being typed out while Retz is on his way to hunt down things to take out a Chakrasul shrine. So yea, it’s going to not make sense in many places and will feature a running commentary of his efforts. In parentheses so no one gets confuzzled about what is what.
First we deal with the word ‘fetching’. (Ok, some asswipe just bashed out Dun fortress, fuck! I’ma have to wait for the orcs to return before I get to do some hurting…) I didn’t know it was British slang. Let’s see what Google says. Aha, I was totally right. It is the diminutive ‘fetch’ that is a modern teenie Brit slang for something that catches their fancy for a moment before they sink back into the torpor of being ripped apart by the formative forces churning within them because of the imbalancing onset of puberty. ‘Fetching’ on the other hand has been in use for far longer. I wonder if I can trace its etymology, just to see if my suspicions of its origins are correct.
From the online etymology dictionary here,
Fetching (adj.) appeared 1581 meaning “crafty, scheming;” the sense of “alluring, fascinating” is 1880.
Doesn’t say much about the origins or initial usage for the word though it does give us a period which is way before Mean Girls. Or as mentioned here,
- To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
- (nautical) To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.
A combination of the two gets me close to the meaning I derived for it, but still isn’t enough. I don’t have the patience to go prowling for more search hits. Here’s my take on it. ‘Fetching’ was probably a term used as a price gauge of the attractiveness of a person, though commonly used in reference to a woman, as in how much would she fetch if she were up for sale… or something like that. And since slavery and bawdery was closely tied to the sailing business [an inference I draw purely from what I remember of Perdita and the sailors in A Winter's Tale], it was probably sailor slang that crept into common talk.
Regardless of what may have been its sordid origins, I still intend to use ‘fetching’ as a synonym for ‘attractive’. So chill, all you fetching ones out there.
Now, for my idle ramble of the morning. Ahem.
What is it about some people that they fill you up with their presence to the extent that there is nought in hell or earth that does not partake of their being? They make the air heavy with their passing, the waters still hold the shape of their passing upside-down reflections, the earth paints her face in their image, the skies repeat their names in the endless litalny of a thousand shrill cries. You feel their presence like an ember slowly glowing in the gaps between your ribs, and with the keystone of their name you build the stepped temple of your adoration, where you will while the rest of your living days as priest and caretaker, the temple and its thirty-two named corridors, your labyrinth.
