Etymologically
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fight

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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
  • 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