Fist sb.¹

Forms: 1 fýst, (fæst), 2–6 fest(e, (3 south. veste), 3–5 fust(e, (3 south. vuste), 4–5 feest, 4–6 fyst(e, 4, 6–7 fiste, 5– fist. [OE. fýst str. fem. corresponds to OFris. fêst, MLG. fûst (Du. vuist), OHG. fûst (MHG. vûst, mod.Ger. faust):—WGer. *fûsti.

  By some scholars this is referred to an OTeut. form *fûhsti-z, *funhsti-z:—pre-Teut. *pṇqstis (whence OSl. pęstĭ of same meaning), f. ablaut-variant of *penqe FIVE.

  1.  The hand clenched or closed tightly, with the fingers doubled into the palm:

  a.  gen., esp. for the purpose of striking.

a. 900.  Lorica Gloss., 49, in O.E. Texts (1885), 173. Pugnas, fyste.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Exod. xxi. 18. Gif men cidaþ & hira oþer hys nextan mid … fyste sticþ.

c. 1050.  Monastic Sign-language, in Techmer’s Internat. Zeitschr. f. allg. Sprgsch., II. 124. Rær up þine fæste.

c. 1160.  Hatton Gosp., Mark xiv. 65. Sume … mid festen hine beaten.

c. 1205.  Lay., 22785.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 106. He þolede þuldeliche þet te Giws dutten, ase heo buffeteden him, his deorewurde muð mid hore dreori fustes.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 105. Þe fyngris of his hand ben folden into his fist.

1490.  Caxton, Eneydos, xxvii. 107. Smytynge her brestes wyth her handes & fustes, and alle to-cratched her face wyth her nayles.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 253 b. They layde on hym with theyr fystes and other wepens.

1588.  Marprel. Epist. (Arb.), 4. You will shortly I hope haue twenty fistes about your eares more then your own.

1626.  J. Pory, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 331, III. 239. The Queen, when she understood the designe, grewe very impatient, and brake the glasse windowes with her fiste.

1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet., 175. And who will imagine the nailes to be mans armes, seeing that when he will fight he hides them, and whereas other Creatures strike with an open paw, he only fights with a closed fist?

1740.  Somerville, Hobbinol, II. 294.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, v. The old woman, testifying by a certain restlessness in her hands a vehement desire to shake her matronly fist at her son-in-law.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew. (1866), II. ii. 36. Pack up the Englishman’s plate-chest, which we inherited by right of fist.

  b.  for clasping or holding something within. Hence also, grasp, grip, clutches. Now chiefly jocular.

  Cf. F. poing, still the ordinary word in this sense. In Eng. hand is now commonly used.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 345.

c. 1320.  R. Brunne, Medit., 212. He þat þou seest yn þe prestes fest.

a. 1400.  Prymer (1891), 18. He that heyest in alle craftes and hooldith the world in his feest.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 10995. Philmen the fre kyng, þat he in fyst hade.

1483.  Caxton, G. de la Tour, E vij. She with hir fyst tooke hym fast by the mantell.

c. 1500.  Melusine, xxxviii. 302. The geaunt, that held his syþe in his fyst.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 2. He that a little before perswaded himselfe to haue helde all England in his fist, now doubted much of his awne lyfe.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. vii. 34.

1676.  Hobbes, Iliad (1677), 244.

1727–38.  Gay, Fables, II. ix. 10.

1807–8.  Syd. Smith, Plymley’s Lett., Wks. (1859), II. 139/2. Turn which way you will, either your laws are nugatory, or the Catholic is bound by religious obligations as you are: but no eel in the well-sanded fist of a cook-maid, upon the eve of being skinned, ever twisted and writhed as an orthodox parson does when he is compelled by the gripe of reason to admit any thing in favour of a Dissenter.

1833.  Mrs. Browning, Prometh. Bound, Poems (1850), I. 182.

1864.  Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., III. 19. Happy with the hawk on his wrist, or the leash in his fist; kind, though his kindness did not always restrain him from cruelty.

  c.  In various phrases: To grease the fist or (one) in the fist: to bribe, pay well; so, † to mollify the fist. To make a (good, poor, etc.) fist: colloq. to make a (good, etc.) attempt at something. Also, Hand over fist, hand to fist: see HAND.

1598.  Bp. Hall, Sat., IV. v. 1.

1698.  J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 98. Making the Merchant dance attendance, till a right understanding be created betwixt the Shawbunder and them, which commonly follows when the Fist is mollified.

1700.  S. L., trans. C. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 111. I had now and then greased the Chief Surgeons Fist.

1880.  Howells, Undisc. Country, v. 87. Mrs. Burton is really making a very pretty fist at a salon.

  d.  in Falconry, with reference to carrying hawks.

1482.  Monk of Evesham, xxxiii. (Arb.), 75. Sothely he bare there on hys fyste a lytyll byrdde lyke a sparhauke.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, D j b. When ye haue yowre hawke on yowre fyst.

1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 215.

1828.  Sir J. S. Sebright, Observations on Hawking, 47. The goshawk is termed a hawk of the fist, because it is from thence, and not from the air, that he flies at his game.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. xv. 285. They will be his darlings, his housecarles, his hawks to sit on his fist and fly at his game.

  e.  Used occasionally for: † (a) A blow with the fist (obs.); (b) the art of using the fists, boxing.

1767.  H. Brooke, Fool of Qual., I. iii. 74. Harry gave him such a sudden fist in the temple as drove him staggering backward several steps. Ibid., I. vi. 206. Our hero gave him such a sudden fist in the mouth, as dashed in two of his teeth that then happened to be moulting, and set him a crying and bleeding in a piteous manner.

a. 1839.  Praed, Poems (1864), II. 13, ‘The Eve of Battle.’

  2.  The hand, not necessarily clenched or closed. Obs. exc. in jocular use.

a. 1300.  Fragm. Pop. Sc. (Wright), 322. Thelbowes to the schare, the fustes to the chynne.

c. 1314.  Guy Warw. (A.), 4059.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XX. 124. The fader is þenne as þe fust · with fynger and with paume.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 4674. With ilka fingire on ȝoure fist.

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 28. This fist shal sacrifice great flocks on thy sacred altars.

1586.  J. Hooker, Girald. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 24/2. She thinking that hir sute was not regarded, did wring hir fists, and cried out with a lowd voice; ‘Reuenge vs this day O Lechlanar, Reuenge vs I say, our kindred, and our nation, from this man.’

1628.  Ford, The Lover’s Melancholy, II. i.

1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet., ii. 113. The people of Numidia, eat out of their fist, and the hand the naturall dish out of which they drink their milke, as a most fit instrument framed by nature for that end.

1708.  Motteux, Rabelais, IV. v. (1737), 20. Panurge and his Antagonist shak’d Fists, and drank in course to one another, in token of a perfect Reconciliation.

1719.  D’Urfey, Pills (1872), III. 105.

Mod. colloq. Give us your fist, old fellow: i.e., shake hands.

  b.  Print. slang. An index mark ☞.

1888.  in Jacobi, Printer’s Vocab., s.v. Fist.—A slang expression for an index mark, thus ☞ sometimes called ‘mutton-fist.’

  3.  The ‘hand’ that one writes; handwriting. Now only jocular.

[1524.  R. Dolphine, Let., 19 April, in M. A. E. Wood, Lett. R. Ladies (1846), II. 23. The letter is subscribed and signed, ‘By the rude fist of your servant and bedeman to his power during his life, RICHARD DOLPHINE.’]

a. 1553.  Udall, Royster D., III. v.

1567.  Turberv., Ovid’s Ep., Ulysses to Penelope, U j b. I knewe thy freendly fist at first.

c. 1690.  in Bagford Ballads (1878), II. 757.

1864.  Derby Day, i. 8. Must say, though, that your friend writes a tolerable fist.

  4.  attrib. and Comb., as fist-like adj.; fistwise adv.; fist-ball (see quot.); fist-fight, a duel with fists; fist-free a., unharmed by blows; fist-law (= Ger. faustrecht), the right of the strongest; fist-mate, an opponent in a boxing-match; † fist-meat, in phr. to eat fist-meat, to receive a blow in the mouth from a fist; fist-work, fighting with the fists. Also CLOSE-FIST.

1585.  Higgins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 295–6. Follis.… A *fist ball or a wind ball beaten with the fists to and fro in play, as the footeball is spurned from place to place.

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., V. iv. 773. At hurl-bats and *fist-fight.

1615.  Tomkis, Albumazar, V. ix. Neuer a sute I wore to day, but hath been soundly basted. Onely this faithfull Countrey case scap’t *fist-free.

1831.  Examiner, 436/1. It was probably acquired … by *fist-law (the jus gladii, or Faustrecht, of the old Civilians).

1856.  R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 35. It is easy to see how, in a rough age of fist-law, the laws of chivalry may inculcate courtesy and ennoble courage.

1647.  R. Stapylton, Juvenal,214.

1834.  Landor, Wks. (1846), II. 239/2. A third [fights] because the next parish is an eyesore to him, and his *fist-mate is from it.

1563.  Jack Juggler (Grosart, 1873), 47. Gentlemen are you disposed to eat any *fist-mete?

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XX. 150.

a. 1603.  T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 514. They which deny that the Scripture and the Word are the same, do all one as if they should deny that it is not the same hand which being first stretched forth palme-wise, is after gathered fist-wise.

1819.  T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Mem. (ed. 3), 6.