Editing Fylfot (section)

==Etymology==
The most commonly cited [[etymology]] for the word is that it comes from a belief, common among 19th-century [[antiquarian]]s but based only on a dubious reading of the [[British Library]]'s [[Lansdowne manuscript]] 874, that the word referred to the device{{snd}} a swastika{{snd}} shown in the main part of the image on of a [[stained glass|stained-glass]] memorial window to Thomas Froxmere in the [[parish church]] of [[Droitwich Spa]] in [[Worcestershire]]. Subsequent analysis of the manuscript by lexicographer [[Henry Bradley]] explained that the word was an instruction to the painter to ''fill'' empty space at the ''foot''.<ref name="Bradley">{{cite journal |journal=[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|]] |first=Henry |last=Bradley |title=THE DERIVATION OF "FYLFOT." |date=31 July 1897 |number=3640 |url=https://archive.org/details/p2athenaeum1897lond/page/163/mode/1up?view=theater}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Mind your language |last=Wordsworth |first=Dot |magazine=The Spectator |location=London |volume=285 |issue= 8977, (Aug 26, 2000) |page=14 |quote=But in 1842, in a book on monumental brasses, J.G. Waller took the word fylfot for the shape of the pattern in the picture; hence a swastika. In reality fylfot seems to derive from words meaning 'fill' and 'foot' - meaning nothing more than a filler at the foot of the window. Yet, as the 19th century went on, the word was copied from book to book. Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) throws fylfot about as if it were the regular mediaeval label for a swastika.}}</ref><ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> This etymology is often cited in modern dictionaries (such as the ''Oxford English Dictionary'',<ref>{{OED|fylfot}}</ref> the ''Collins English Dictionary'' and Merriam-Webster Online<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fylfot |title=Fylfot |work=Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |year=2015 |access-date=31 March 2015}}</ref>).

[[Walter William Skeat]]'s 1882 ''A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' defined the fylfot as "a peculiarly formed cross" and derived it from [[Old English]]:
{{Quote|The word simply means 'four-footed.' The A.S. {{Lang|ang|feówer}}, four, when used in composition, took the curious form {{Lang|ang|fyðer}} or {{Lang|ang|fiðer}}, easily contracted to {{Lang|ang|fyr-}}, and corrupted to {{Lang|ang|fyl-}}.<ref name="Skeat-1882">{{Cite book |last=Skeat |first=Walter W. |author-link=Walter William Skeat |url=https://archive.org/details/aconciseetymolo06skeagoog/page/n629 |title=A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language |date=1882 |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |location=Oxford |pages=614}}</ref>}}

The second edition of Skeat's ''An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'', completed in 1883, included an expanded etymology for fylfot which derived the word from {{Langx|ang|*fyðer-fóte|4=four-footed|links=no}}.<ref name="Skeat-1888">{{Cite book |last=Skeat |first=Walter W. |author-link=Walter William Skeat |url=https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldict00skeauoft/page/807 |title=An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language |date= |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |others= |year=1888 |location=Oxford |pages=307 |orig-year=1884}}</ref><ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> His definition was "a peculiarly formed cross, each arm being bent at right angles, always in the same direction" and continued that the figure was "Also called a rebated cross". After citing [[Frederick William Fairholt]]'s ''Dictionary of Terms in Art'' and [[Charles Boutell]]'s ''Heraldry'', Skeat wrote of fylfot's etymology that it was:
{{Quote|Supposed to be (as is probable) a corruption of A. S. {{Lang|ang|fíer-fóte}}, variant of {{Lang|ang|fyðer-fóte}}, four-footed, in allusion to its shape The change from ''r'' to ''l'' is common, Cf. Swed. {{Lang|sv|fyrfotad}}, four-footed. The A. S. {{Lang|ang|fyðer}}-, i. e. 'four,' is only found in compounds; the usual form is {{Lang|ang|feówer}}; cf. Goth. {{Lang|got|fidwor}}.<ref name="Skeat-1888" />}}
In the fourth edition, completed in 1909, Skeat accepted Bradley's 1897 etymology,<ref name="Skeat-1910">{{Cite book |last=Skeat |first=Walter W. |author-link=Walter William Skeat |url=https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldict00skea/page/230 |title=An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |others= |year=1910 |edition=3rd |location=Oxford |pages=230–231}}</ref><ref name="Cheesman-2019" /> replacing the mention of the rebated cross and the Anglo-Saxon etymology with:<ref name="Skeat-1910" />{{Quote|Also called a ''gammadion''. … Modern; and due to a mistake. MS. Lansdowne 874, at leaf 190, has ''fylfot'', meaning a space in a painted window, at the bottom, that ''fills'' the ''foot''. This was erroneously connected (in 1842) with the '''gammadion'',' as the cross was rightly named.<ref name="Skeat-1910" />}}''The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology'' of 1966, edited by [[Charles Talbut Onions]], defined the fylfot as the 
{{quote|antiquary's term for the cross cramponee, swastika, or gammadion, derived from a solitary ex. in British Museum MS Landowne 874, f. 190, the context of which suggests the interpretation 'fill-foot', i.e. a device for filling the foot of a painted window.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/onions-ed.-the-oxford-dictionary-of-english-etymology-1966/page/384 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |year=1994 |editor-last=Onions |editor-first=C. T. |editor-link=Charles Talbut Onions |location=Oxford |pages=384 |orig-year=1966 |editor-last2=Friedrichsen |editor-first2=G. W. S. |editor-last3=Burchfield |editor-first3=R. W. |editor-link3=Robert Burchfield}}</ref>}}