Meaning

noun a hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war

noun the act of fighting; any contest or struggle

noun an aggressive willingness to compete

originFrom Middle English fighten (“to fight”), from Old English feohtan (“to fight, combat, strive”), from Proto-West Germanic *fehtan (“to fight”), from Proto-Germanic *fehtaną (“to comb, tease, shear, struggle with”), from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“to comb, shear”). Cognate with Scots fecht (“to fight”), West Frisian fjochtsje, fjuchte (“to fight”), Dutch vechten (“to fight”), Low German fechten…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0