Etymology

befight

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Today it means: To deprive of by fighting. Full definition →

Middle English *befighten, *befeghten ← Old English befeohtan
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited frombefeohtan“to take by fighting”
  2. Middle English · inherited from*befighten, *befeghten
  3. English todaybefight

From Middle English *befighten, *befeghten, from Old English befeohtan (“to take by fighting”), equivalent to be- + fight. Cognate with Dutch bevechten (“to fight, combat”), Middle High German bevehten.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.