Talking tonight, I used the phrase 'by hook or by crook'. Then I got to wondering....

Maven's Word of the Day site discusses it here. Apparently, it is quite an old phrase, going back at least as far as 1380. Maven's theory is that in medieval England the forests belonged to the sovereign, and no one was allowed to cut timber. Yet, the peasants were allowed to take any deadwood that they could reach with a shepherd's crook (the shepherd's staff with the hooked end) or cut off with the sharp blade of a reaper's hook -- by hook or by crook.

I just popped over to Wordorigins.org to see if they had any additional info. It seems nobody there can say with certainty what its true origins are, citing the Wycliffe statement on Maven.

The explanation is correct, but incomplete.

The tenants of a feudal lord had certain rights as part of their tenancy. Such a right was called a bote, and the word survizes in the sense of giving someone an extra benefit "to boot". (You can find serveral of those rights by doing a pattern seach in one-look for *bote, but I'm not convinced the definitions there are 100% accurate.)

In general, peasants were strictly forbidden to fell trees in the forest. But the haybote (hedge right) entitled them to cut branches to repair hedges and fences, the housebote (house right) entitled them to cut wood needed for house repairs, and there was a right to gather as firewood any brannches that had fallen or could be broken off by a shepaherd's crook or by a hook (curved knife) attached to a pole.

Originally, then, the phrase "by hook or by crook" mean "by limited means". However, the phrase evolved by association with other meanings of the words crook (a thief) and hook (to steal), and eventually by hook or by crook came to mean "by any means, fair or foul".