feist
or fice fist
[fahyst]
- Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. a small mongrel dog, especially one that is ill-tempered; cur; mutt.
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- South Midland U.S. to prance or strut about: Look at him feist around in his new clothes.
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Origin of feist
1760–70; compare (from 16th cent.) fisting hound, fisting cur, as contemptuous epithets for any kind of dog (present participle of fist to break wind, late Middle English; compare Old English fisting breaking wind, Middle Low German vīst, German Fist fart); (def 2) perhaps back formation from feisty
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for feist
Contemporary Examples
Before Feist can reply, his political director, Mark Preston, looks up from his BlackBerry.
Feist is familiar, of course, with the objections that have been leveled against the 2012 debates lately.
Feist pauses and smiles, convinced that he has convinced me.
Feist cover “Limit to Your Love” [below] manages to improve on the original, and is one of the best songs of the year.
Historical Examples
Feist compares it with English and considers it a “mixed language” almost from the start, and many facts seem to favor this view.
The New Stone Age in Northern EuropeJohn M. Tyler
Mon frre Annemond Coct, chevalier, au partir du pays me feist son heritier.
History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, Volume IIIJ. H. Merle D'Aubign
Word Origin and History for feist
n.
also fist, "a breaking wind, foul smell, fart," mid-15c. (Old English had present participle fisting), a general West Germanic word; cf. Middle Dutch veest, Dutch vijst (see feisty).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper