fechten

From Old High German fehtan (“to fight”), from Proto-West Germanic *fehtan, from Proto-Germanic *fehtaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ-.

Cognate to Low German fechten, Dutch vechten, English fight, Danish fægte, Norwegian Bokmål fekte, Norwegian Nynorsk fekta, fekte.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛçtən/

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fechten (class 3 strong, third-person singular present (standard but rare in the vernacular) ficht or (colloquial) fechtet, past tense focht, past participle gefochten, past subjunctive föchte, auxiliary haben)

1. (intransitive) to fence
2. (intransitive, poetic) to fight
   • 1772, Salomon Geßner, Neue Idyllen:

     Einer, der neben mir focht, sah rückwärts, rafft' auf seine Schulter mich, und lief mit mir aus der Schlacht. Ein frommer Ordensmann betete nicht weit auf einem Fels um unsern Sieg: Pflege diesen, Vater, er hat gefochten wie ein Mann!

     One who fought next to me, looked backward, gather'd me up on his shoulder, and ran with me from the battle. A devout man of God prayed not far on a rock for our victory: Look after this one, father, he has fought like a man!

   • 1797, August Wilhelm Schlegel, transl., Julius Cäsar‎, translation of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, [Act II, scene iv]:

     Ich hörte wilden Lärm, als föchte man, / Und der Wind bringt vom Kapitol ihn her.

     I heard a bustling rumour, as if one fought, and the wind brings it from the Capitol.

   • 1930, “act 1, scene 11”, in Bertolt Brecht (lyrics), Kurt Weil (music), Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny:

     Haltet euch aufrecht, fürchtet euch nicht / Brüder, erlischt auch das irdische Licht / wollt nicht verzagen, / was hilft alles klagen / dem, der gegen Hurrikane ficht.

     Keep upright, do not fear / brothers, even if the earthly light may extinguish / do not give up hope / what help is all lamenting / to him who fights hurricanes.

3. (intransitive, cant) to beg

   Synonym: betteln

• For the 2nd and 3rd person singular there are two sets of forms: regularized (du fechtest, er fechtet) and traditional (du fichtst, er ficht). Only the traditional forms are standard, and they remain favoured in literary German, but are rare in the vernacular and might even be unintelligible to many less educated speakers.
• Only the traditional forms are used in the sense “to fight”, which is by definition literary.

• anfechten
• ausfechten
• Fechten (“fencing”)
• Gefecht (“battle”)

• Fuchtel
• fuchteln

• → Russian: фехтовать (fextovatʹ)

• “fechten” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “fechten” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “fechten” in Duden online
• “fechten” in OpenThesaurus.de

From Middle Low German vechten, from Old Saxon fehtan, from Proto-West Germanic *fehtan, from Proto-Germanic *fehtaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ-.

Cognate with English fight, German fechten, Dutch vechten, West Frisian fjuchte, Danish fegte.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛxtn̩/

fechten (past singular fecht or focht, past participle fecht or fochten, auxiliary verb hebben)

1. to fight, to combat, to wage battle
2. to fence
3. to struggle
4. to brawl

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