feist

Significat (English)

1. A small, snappy, belligerent mixed-breed dog; a feist dog.
2. Feisty behavior.
3. Silent (but pungent) flatulence.

Synonyms

fice

cur

pooch

Pronunciat com a (IPA)

/faɪst/

Etimologia (English)

Inherited from anglès mitjà: fysten

Inherited from anglès antic: -

Cognate with neerlandès mitjà: veest

Cognate with neerlandès: vijst

Cognate with alemany: Fist

Cognate with danès: fise

Cognate with anglès mitjà: askefise

Cognate with nòrdic antic: -

In summary

Earliest sense is “fart”, and later “stink” as abbreviation for fysting cur “stinking dog” (1520s). From Middle English fysten (mid-15th century), from Old English. Cognate with Middle Dutch veest and Dutch vijst. Possibly from Proto-Germanic *fistiz (“a fart”), presumably from Proto-Indo-European *pesd-, though this is disputed.
One explanation for the association of farting with small dogs is given in an 1811 slang dictionary, which suggests that the dogs were blamed for farting, specifically defining fice as “a small windy escape backwards, more obvious to the nose than ears; frequently by old ladies charged on their lap-dogs.”
Cognate terms include German Fist (“soft fart”), Danish fise (“to blow, to fart”) and Middle English askefise (“bellows”, literally “fire-blower, ash-blower”), from Old Norse; originally “a term of reproach among northern nations for an unwarlike fellow who stayed at home in the chimney corner”.