underfongen

Middle English

Alternative forms

• underfangen, undervongen

Etymology

From Old English underfōn (“to receive, obtain, take, accept, take in, entertain, take up, undertake, assume, adopt, submit to, undergo, steal”), from Proto-Germanic *under + *fanhaną (“to take, receive”). Cognate with Dutch ondervangen (“to overcome, forestall”), German unterfangen (“to venture, dare”).

Verb

underfongen

1. (transitive) to undertake
2. (transitive) to accept; receive
3. (transitive) to insnare; entrap; deceive by false suggestions
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For that he is so puissant and so strong, / That with his powre he all doth overgo, / And makes them subject to his mighty wrong; / And some by sleight he eke doth underfong.

4. (transitive) to support or guard from beneath

Related terms

• underfon

Descendants

• English: underfong