fisticuff

English

Etymology

From fist +‎ cuff (“blow with the hand”). Modern uses as a verb are a back-formation on the plural uses of the noun.

Noun

fisticuff (plural fisticuffs)

(rare) A fistfight.
- 1852, Eli Bowen et al., The Pictorial Sketch-book of Pennsylvania:
  Every fifteen or twenty minutes there was a rush to some part, to witness a fisticuff.
- 1902, Joseph Conrad, “Heart of Darkness”, in Youth: A Narrative: And Two Other Stories, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and sons, →OCLC, part III, pages 161–162:
  This clearly was not a case for fisticuffs, even apart from the very natural aversion I had to beat that Shadow—this wandering and tormented thing.
(obsolete) A cuff or blow administered with the fist.

Verb

fisticuff (third-person singular simple present fisticuffs, present participle fisticuffing, simple past and past participle fisticuffed)

(chiefly humorous) To engage in a physical fight.
- 1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 265:
  Generously scattering a drop of my fortune on an early morning sea breeze. Should have jumped after it. Grabber at life's banquet follows a fortune to doom. As folk fleece and fisticuff in street.
(obsolete) To strike, fight or spar with the fists.
- 1846, Making of America Project, The American Whig Review:
  Do they fisticuff with thunder-snaggs […]

Derived terms

fisticuffer

References

“fisticuff”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
“fisticuff”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.