Why Do We Say “In One Fell Swoop”?

The phrase “one fell swoop” isn’t for the birds so much as it’s meant for humans. It gained its popularity thanks to the Bard of Avon himself. Swooping Bald Eagle With Vast Wingspan

As the old superstition goes, it’s bad luck to say “Macbeth” inside a theater, lest you risk cursing the production. But there are plenty of other words and phrases coined in this Shakespearean tragedy that are perfectly OK to say wherever and whenever you choose. Take, for example, the phrase “one fell swoop,” whose popularity is owed to William Shakespeare.

As a whole, the phrase “in one fell swoop” means “with a single, quick action or effort.” But to better understand it, let’s look at the individual components. The word “fell” has nothing to do with the verb “to fall” but rather relates to an archaic adjectival use meaning “fierce,” “deadly,” or “sharp.” “Swoop” can be used to describe a rapid, downward motion, perhaps that of a bird plunging toward its prey. So “one fell swoop” describes a particularly vicious, swift, and effective action.

This brings us to Shakespeare, specifically Act IV, Scene 3 of Macbeth. Upon finding out that his wife and children have been murdered, the character Macduff exclaims: 

He has no children. All my pretty ones? 
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? 
What, all my pretty chickens and the dam 
At one fell swoop?”       
Here, Macduff implies that the murder of his family was akin to a bird of prey called a kite killing helpless chickens. While it’s impossible to say whether this was the very first use of the phrase “one fell swoop,” Shakespeare’s incredible influence on the development of the English language definitely helped to popularize the idiom. In time, however, it shed its inherently vicious connotation and came to suggest sudden activity more than anything else.
Bennett Kleinman
Staff Writer
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism. He is also a freelance comedy writer, devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.

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