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 pectere ‘comb’ and Greek péko ‘comb’.
The missing links in the apparently far-fetched semantic chain between ‘fighting’ and ‘combing’ are provided by such words as Spanish pelear ‘fight, quarrel’, a derivative of pelo ‘hair’, which originally meant ‘pull hair’; German raufen ‘pull out, pluck’, which when used reflexively means ‘fight’; and English tussle, which originally meant ‘pull roughly’, and may be related to tousle.
fight (v.)
Old English feohtan "to combat, contend with weapons, strive; attack; gain by fighting, win" (intransitive; class III strong verb; past tense feaht, past participle fohten), from Proto-Germanic *fehtan (cognates: Old High German fehtan, German fechten, Middle Dutch and Dutch vechten, Old Frisian fiuhta "to fight"), from PIE *pek- (2) "to pluck out" (wool or hair), apparently with a notion of "pulling roughly" (cognates: Greek pekein "to comb, shear," pekos "fleece, wool;" Persian pashm "wool, down," Latin pectere "to comb," Sanskrit paksman- "eyebrows, hair").
Spelling substitution of -gh- for a "hard H" sound was a Middle English scribal habit, especially before -t-. In some late Old English examples, the middle consonant was represented by a yogh. Among provincial early Modern English spellings, Wright lists faight, fate, fecht, feeght, feight, feit, feyght, feyt, feort, foight.
From c. 1200 as "offer resistance, struggle;" also "to quarrel, wrangle, create a disturbance." From late 14c. as "be in conflict." Transitive use from 1690s. To fight for "contest on behalf of" is from early 14c. To fight back "resist" is recorded from 1890. Well figt þat wel fligt ("he fights well that flies fast") was a Middle English proverb.
fight (n.)
Old English feohte, gefeoht "a fight, combat, hostile encounter;" see fight (v.). Compare Old Frisian fiucht, Old Saxon fehta, Dutch gevecht, Old High German gifeht, German Gefecht. Meaning "power or inclination to fight" is from 1812.
双语例句
1. I too am committing myself to continue the fight for justice.
我本人也保证将继续为正义而战。
来自柯林斯例句
2. He had had a fight with Smith and bloodied his nose.
他和史密斯打了一架，把后者的鼻子打出了血。
来自柯林斯例句
3. We'll face a tough fight in the upcoming election.
在即将到来的选举中，我们将面临一场恶斗。
来自柯林斯例句
4. As far as I'm concerned the officials incited the fight.
在我看来，是官员们煽动了这场争斗。
来自柯林斯例句
5. We are prepared to fight for every inch of territory.