boxing

Etymology

It is formed from English box + -ing, a verbal noun of the verb meaning "to strike with the fist", later "to fight with the fists".^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The dictionaries agree that it comes from this verb, not from the container word, which has a separate source; the container's own derivative boxing, the action of putting into a box, or a casing, is recorded from about 1425 (as a medical term for cupping) and 1546.^[2][5] The verb, recorded from about 1390, is in turn from the noun box, a blow, recorded from about 1300,^[2][4][3] which the OED takes as probably imitative of the sound of a blow.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart compare Middle Dutch boke, Middle High German buc and Danish bask, all meaning "blow", though without evidence of a link, and Barnhart and Ayto also mention a figurative use of the container word.^[3][4][7] The OED thinks there is probably no connection with puchen (“to knock”) and its relatives beyond a similar imitative motive.^[2] The English verb was borrowed into many European languages, as Dutch boksen.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Striking or hitting, especially with the hand: 1594, in Thomas Stocker's translation of Du Vair.^[2] Merriam-Webster gives 1605 as the first known use of the sport sense,^[6] while the OED's first record of fighting with the fists is from 1693.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart and Etymonline date the sense "fighting with the fists as a sport" to 1711.^[4][3] Barnhart explains the late date by the sport having died out after ancient Rome; it returned in the late 17th century and became popular in the early 18th through the English athlete James Figg.^[4] The OED describes the modern sport as two boxers in padded gloves trying to win on points or by a knockout.^[2] From 1856 the word was also used of animals striking each other with paws or feet.^[2] The boxing glove is recorded from 1805.^[3] The older sense, a blow or hitting, is now rare and found mostly with ears, as in boxing someone's ears;^[2] Ayto notes that the noun box, a blow, survives mainly in a box round the ears.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – box, a blow.^[4][3]
• c. 1390 – verb box, to beat.^[2][4]
• 1567 – verb, to fight with the fists.^[4] Etymonline dates it to the 1560s, the OED to 1581.^[3][2]
• 1594 – boxing, striking, hitting.^[2]
• 1693 – fighting with the fists.^[2]
• 1711 – the sport of fighting with the fists.^[4][3]
• 1805 – boxing glove.^[3]
• 1856 – of animals, striking with the paw or foot.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sport in which two people fight with their fists, usually in padded gloves and under set rules: He took up boxing at school.^[6][2][5]
2. Fighting with the fists in general.^[2][5]
3. (now rare) Striking or hitting, especially about the ears.^[2]

Word family

• kickboxing
• boxing glove
• boxing ring

Related words

• box
• boxer

Usage notes

Boxing Day, the first weekday after Christmas Day, belongs to the container word's boxing: it is the day on which Christmas boxes were traditionally given.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black