Expert: Ted Nesbitt - 6/11/2003

Question
Where does the phrase "by hook or by crook" come from?  What is its etymology?

Answer
Tony:

There are three possible origins for the phrase:  the practice of peasants' collecting firewood; Oliver Cromwell's attempt to seize an Irish town; a nautical term.  The most likely is the firewood explanation -- although NO ONE can be absolutely certain.

John Bartlett, in his "Dictionary of Quotations," attributed the phrase to John Heywood [1497?-1580?] in his
"Proverbes." Part i. Chap. xi.  You can explore this at the Bartleby.com site I am pasting below.

Here are all three possibilities.  The Bartlett and the Phrase Finder sources are VERY reliable, and you will note that other people quote from then, without giving due credit.

I hope this works for you --


<http://www.bartleby.com/100/115.79.html>

This phrase derives its origin from the custom of certain manors where tenants are authorized to take fire-bote by hook or by crook; that is, so much of the underwood as may be cut with a crook, and so much of the loose timber as may be collected from the boughs by means of a hook. One of the earliest citations of this proverb occurs in John Wycliffe's Controversial Tracts, circa 1370.—See Skelton, Quotation 5 </100/114.html>. Francis Rabelais </100/730.html>: book v. chap. xiii. Du Bartas </100/732.html>: The Map of Man. Edmund Spenser </100/125.html>: Faerie Queene, book iii. canto i. st. 17. Beaumont and Fletcher </100/158.html>: Women Pleased, act i. sc. 3. [back]
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<http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/82400.html>

Meaning By any means possible. Origin Possibly from a custom in mediaeval England that allowed peasants to take any deadwood from the royal forest that they could reach with a shepherd's crook or a reaper's billhook. Another possible explanation comes Cromwell's attempt to take the city of Waterford. He is reported as saying he would take the city 'by hook or by crook'. Hook is the headland on the Wexford side and Crook is the name of the Waterford side.
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<http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxbyhook.html>
This phrase formerly meant "by fair means or foul", although now
it often (especially in the U.K.) means simply "by whatever
necessary means".  The first recorded use is by John Wycliffe in
Controversial Tracts (circa 1380).  Theories include:  a law or
custom in mediaeval England that allowed peasants to take as
firewood from the King's forests any deadwood that they could reach
with a shepherd's crook and cut off with a reaper's billhook;
rhyming words for "direct" (reachable with a long hook) and
"indirect" (roundabout); beginners' writing exercises, where letters
have hooks and brackets are "crooks"; and from "Hook" and "Crook",
the names of headlands on either side of a bay north of Waterford,
Ireland, referring to a captain's determination to make the haven of
the bay in bad weather using one headland or the other as a guide.

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Dictionary of Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett (1848)

BY HOOK OR BY CROOK. One way or other; by any expedient.--Johnson.
It can't be done by hook or crook,
Unless your Highness undertook
To see me through the matter clean.--Reynard the Fox.

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These are the best references I could find.  My recommendation is to go with the peasants and firewood.  It certainly predates Oliver Cromwell.

Ted Nesbitt

NOTE:  If you appreciate my effort in answering your question, please be kind and evaluate me.  Thank you.  TN