fight

Pronunciation

• IPA: /faɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fighten, inherited from Old English feohtan (“to combat, contend with weapons, strive”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-West Germanic *fehtan,^[5][4] Proto-Germanic *fehtaną.^[2][3] Its cognates include Old Frisian fiuchta, Old High German fehtan, Dutch vechten and German fechten (“to fence, fight”).^[3][2][4] Etymonline, Klein and Hoad connect it with Proto-Indo-European *pek- (“to comb, pluck out wool or hair”), the root of Latin pectere (“to comb”),^[2][6][5] and Klein compares Lithuanian pėšti (“to pluck out”) and susipėšti (“to fight, scuffle”).^[6] Barnhart instead compares Greek πύκτης (púktēs, “boxer”), from *peuḱ-.^[3] The noun is from Old English feoht and gefeoht.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To contend in battle or single combat: Old English feohtan, about 900.^[7][3] The noun, a hostile encounter between forces, is from about 893,^[7] and Barnhart cites Old English feoht about 725, in Beowulf.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “to strive, struggle” is from before 1000,^[7] as is the noun's sense “strife, struggle”.^[7] The verb is used with for, “on behalf of”, from before 1300.^[7] The noun meant a combat between two persons or animals from about 1300,^[7] and later especially a boxing match.^[4] Fight shy of and fight it out are later phrases.^[8] The sense “the will or power to fight”, as in full of fight, is from 1812.^[2] Fight-back, a rally or recovery, is from 1953.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English feoht, a fight (Beowulf).^[3]
• c. 900 – verb, to fight in battle.^[7]
• before 1000 – to strive, struggle.^[7]
• 1122 – Middle English fihten.^[3]
• c. 1300 – a combat between persons.^[7]
• 1812 – the will to fight.^[2]
• 1953 – fight-back.^[7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To try to harm or overpower an opponent with blows or weapons.
2. To box or wrestle.
3. To quarrel or argue.
4. To strive hard; to struggle against or for something.
5. To wage a battle or war.

Noun

1. A confrontation in which each side tries to harm or overpower the other.
2. A quarrel or conflict.
3. A boxing or wrestling match.
4. A struggle to achieve something.
5. The will or ability to fight.

Word family

• fightability
• fightable
• fightingly
• outfight

Related words

• fought
• fighter
• comb
• pectin

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin