fist
/fɪst/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.89 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A hand with the fingers clenched or curled inward.
noun
The characteristic signaling rhythm of an individual telegraph or CW operator when sending Morse code.
noun
The talons of a bird of prey.
verb
To strike with the fist.
Example Sentences
- "The boxer's fists rained down on his opponent in the last round."
- "More light then Culver in the Faulcons fist."
- "City look stronger, fitter and more motivated than last season and even at this early stage the gap feels like a sizeable advantage. Yes, it is way too early to make snap judgments about the impact on the title race. It has, however, been long enough to ascertain that Manuel Pellegrini’s team are going to make a much better fist of it this time."
- "With the rise of cognitive neuroscience, the time may be coming when we can make a reasonable fist of mapping down from an understanding of the functional architecture of the mind to the structural architecture of the brain."
- "...may not score a point with his open hand(s), but may score a point by fisting the ball."
- "He noticed Ada's trick of hiding her fingernails by fisting her hand or stretching it with the palm turned upward when helping herself to a biscuit."
Etymology
From Middle English fist, from Old English fȳst (“fist”), from Proto-West Germanic *fūsti (“fist”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“to punch; to prick, stab”). Cognates Cognate with Yola fest, hist (“fist”), Saterland Frisian Fäste, Fääste (“fist”), West Frisian fûst (“fist”), Central Franconian Fuus (“fist”), Cimbrian bòista, vòista (“fist”), Dutch vuist (“fist”), German Faust (“fist”), Low German Fuust (“fist”), Luxembourgish Fauscht (“fist”), Vilamovian faojst, faust (“fist”), Yiddish פֿויסט (foyst, “fist”); also Irish fuaigh (“sew, stitch”), Latin pugnus (“fist”), Ancient Greek πυγμή (pugmḗ, “fist”), πύκτης (púktēs, “boxer, pugilist”), Lithuanian kumštis (“fist”), Bulgarian пестник (pestnik, “fist; punch”), Czech pěst (“fist”), Polish pięść (“fist”), Russian пясть (pjastʹ, “metacarpus”), Serbo-Croatian пе̏ст, pȅst, пѐсница, pèsnica (“fist”), Slovak päsť (“fist”), Slovene pest (“fist”). More at five.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: fist, fȳst, *fūsti, *pewǵ-, fisten, *fistan