The story
- Latin · derived frompugil“fist”
- English todaypugilism
From Latin pugil (“fist”) + -ism, related to pugnus (“fist”), from Proto-Indo-European roots. Compare contemporary pugilist (“boxer”), 1790.
Words from the same roots
Latinpugil all →
pugilist
First known use, by meaning
- from 1791 Fighting with fists.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.