An archaic or dialectal term of uncertain meaning, possibly related to the fist or to a type of whistle or small object.
Of obscure origin; possibly a variant or diminutive of fist or a word borrowed from a regional dialect. It appears rarely in Old English texts with unclear definitions.
Philologists get excited about words like 'fistle' because they're like linguistic fossils—they appear in old documents just enough to prove they existed, but not enough to tell us what they actually meant!
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