| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| feist |
| |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  f st |
| VARIANT FORMS: | also fice ( fs) |
| NOUN: | Chiefly Southern U.S. A small mongrel dog. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Variant of obsolete fist, short for fisting dog, from Middle English fisting, a blowing, breaking wind, from Old English fsting. See pezd- in Appendix I. | | REGIONAL NOTE: | Feist, also fice, is one of several regional terms for a small mixed-breed dog. Used throughout the Midland and Southern states, feist connotes a snappy, nervous, belligerent little dog—hence the derived adjective feisty, meaning “touchy, quarrelsome, or spirited,” applicable to animals and to people. Although feist remains a regional word, feisty has now entered standard usage throughout the United States.
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
