gefeoht

Old English

Alternative forms

  • ġefiht, gifect

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *gafehtą. Cognate with Old Saxon *gifeht, Old High German gifeht. Equivalent to ġe- +‎ feoht.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /jeˈfe͜oxt/

Noun

ġefeoht n

  1. fight, fighting
    Ġeswīcaþ þæs ġefeohtes!
    Stop the fighting!
  2. battle
    • late 9th century, translation of Orosius’ History Against the Pagans
      Leoniða, Læcedemonia cyning, Crēca byrġ, hæfde IIII þūsend monna, þā hē anġēan Xersis fōr, on ānum nearwan londfæstenne; ⁊ him þǣr mid ġefeohte wiðstōd.
      Leonidas, king of Sparta, a Greek city, had four thousand men, when he marched against Xerxes, in a narrow fortified pass; and stood against him in battle.
  3. war
    • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Saint Agnes, Virgin"
      ...and behat me þam heretogan þæt he me underfo æfter ðam gefeohte siððan he ða scyððiscan mid sige oferwinð.
      ...and promise me to the general, that he may take me after the war, after he shall by victory conquer the Scythians.

Usage notes

In the Early West Saxon of King Alfred, ġewinn was used for "war" and ġefeoht for "battle," while in the Late West Saxon of Ælfric ġefeoht was the word for both "battle" and "war."

Declension

Strong a-stem:

singular plural
nominative ġefeoht ġefeoht
accusative ġefeoht ġefeoht
genitive ġefeohtes ġefeohta
dative ġefeohte ġefeohtum

Derived terms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.