One Fowl... Foul... Swoop?

I didn't realize that for years I had been wrong.

Was it "one foul swoop" or "one fowl swoop".

I imagined a fowl swooping. Of course it would have been an eagle or a hawk. Or maybe a kestral or a kite.

Something with talons.

Do chickens have large talons?

To be honest I don't know, but they're not a deadly or dangerous fowl by any means.

So it certainly wouldn't have been a finch or a frigate either.

Or was it "one foul swoop"?

I envisaged a soccer player, taking a dive. Swooping upon his prey, sliding in, taking out the player rather then the ball.

Professional foul!

But alas it's not either. I fell for 'foul' or 'fowl' but it is in fact... 'fell'.

It is believed that Shakespeare may have coined the phrase. Or documented an otherwise oft used turn of phrase at the time. A little over 400 years ago in Macbeth he wrote the following...

MACDUFF on hearing that his family and servants have all been killed:

All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?

The kite referred to is a hunting bird.

And of course there's the chickens mentioned. In short the reference is full of fowls. Shakespeare must have been fond of them. But you can see why it could be so easily fouled up.