An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/fechten

by Friedrich Kluge

fechten, verb, ‘to fight, fence,’ from the equivalent Middle High German vëhten, Old High German fëhtan; a term common to West Teutonic for ‘to fight, contend,’ unknown to Scandinavian and Gothic; compare Dutch and Middle High German vechten, Old Frisian fluchta, Anglo-Saxon feohtan, English to fight. Whether the verb has always belonged to the e class is questionable; it may have passed from the preterite plural and participle of the u class into the e class; in that case, we should have to assume Gothic *fiuhtan, *fáuht, *faúhtum, *faúhtans, instead of *faíhtan, *faht, *faúhtam, *faúhtans. This conceivable assumption facilitates the connection with Latin pugna, pugnare; yet the latter are probably only derivatives of pugnus, ‘fist’; perhaps the inferred Gothic *fiuhtan, ‘to fight,’ is similarly related to Faust.