fight

fight
\ \ [OE] The deadly earnestness of fighting seems to have had its etymological origins in the rather petty act of pulling someone’s hair. Fight, together with German fechten and Dutch vechten, goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *fekhtan, which appears to come from the same ultimate source as Latin pecterecomb’ and Greek pékocomb’. The missing links in the apparently far-fetched semantic chain between ‘fighting’ and ‘combing’ are provided by such words as Spanish pelearfight, quarrel’, a derivative of pelohair’, which originally meant ‘pull hair’; German raufenpull out, pluck’, which when used reflexively means ‘fight’; and English tussle, which originally meant ‘pull roughly’, and may be related to tousle.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • fight — ► VERB (past and past part. fought) 1) take part in a violent struggle involving physical force or weapons. 2) engage in (a war or contest). 3) quarrel or argue. 4) (fight off) defend oneself against an attack by. 5) struggle to overcome,… …   English terms dictionary

  • Fight — Fight, v. t. 1. To carry on, or wage, as a conflict, or battle; to win or gain by struggle, as one s way; to sustain by fighting, as a cause. [1913 Webster] He had to fight his way through the world. Macaulay. [1913 Webster] I have fought a good… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Fight — 〈[ faıt] m. 6〉 1. harter, verbissener Wettkampf 2. Boxkampf ● ein guter, fairer Fight [engl., „Kampf“] * * * Fight [fa̮it ], der; s, s [engl. fight, eigtl. = Kampf, zu: to fight = kämpfen, verw. mit ↑ fechten]: 1. verbissen geführter Kampf (in… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Fight — Fight, n. [OE. fight, feht, AS. feoht. See {Fight}, v. i.] 1. A battle; an engagement; a contest in arms; a combat; a violent conflict or struggle for victory, between individuals or between armies, ships, or navies, etc. [1913 Webster] Who now… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • fight — [fīt] vi. fought, fighting [ME fighten < OE feohtan, akin to Ger fechten < IE base * pek , to pluck hair or wool > OE feoh (see FEE) & L pecten, a comb, pecu, cattle] 1. a) to take part in a physical struggle or battle; struggle b) to… …   English World dictionary

  • Fight — (f[imac]t), v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Fought} (f[add]t); p. pr. & vb. n. {Fighting}.] [OE. fihten, fehten, AS. feohtan; akin to D. vechten, OHG. fehtan, G. fechten, Sw. f[ a]kta, Dan. fegte, and perh. to E. fist; cf. L. pugnare to fight, pugnus fist.] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • fight — fight; fight·able; fight·er; re·fight; fight·ing·ly; …   English syllables

  • Fight — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Fight Información personal Origen Arizona, Estados Unidos …   Wikipedia Español

  • fight — s.n. (Anglicism) Luptă, meci (la box). [pron. fait. < engl. fight]. Trimis de LauraGellner, 25.03.2005. Sursa: DN  FIGHT FAIT/ s. n. meci (la box). (< engl. fight) Trimis de raduborza, 15.09.2007. Sursa: MDN …   Dicționar Român

  • fight — [n1] physical encounter action, affray, altercation, argument, battle, battle royal*, bout, brawl, broil, brush, clash, combat, conflict, confrontation, contention, contest, controversy, difficulty, disagreement, dispute, dissension, dogfight,… …   New thesaurus

  • Fight On — Fight On ! Album par Point Blank Sortie 2009 Genre Rock sudiste Hard rock Producteur Rusty Burns Label Dixiefrog …   Wikipédia en Français

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