Meaning

noun any distracting or deceptive maneuver (as a mock attack)

verb deceive by a mock action

originThe noun is borrowed from French feinte (“dummy, feint”), from feindre (“to fake, feign”), from Old French feindre, faindre, from Latin fingere, the present active infinitive of fingō (“to alter the truth to deceive, dissemble, feign, pretend; to fashion, form, shape”). The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * English feign, fiction, figment * Italian finta * Occitan fencha, fenha * Old…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0