where does by hook or by crook come from
By hook or by crook The origin of the phrase is obscure, with multiple different explanations and no evidence to support any particular one over the others.[3] For example, a commonly repeated suggestion is that it comes from Hook Head in Wexford, Ireland and the nearby village of Crooke, in Waterford, Ireland. Another is that it comes from the customs regulating which firewood local people could take from common land; they were allowed to take any branches that they could reach with a billhook or a shepherd's crook (used to hook sheep).[4]