fetch

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English[edit]

WOTD – 31 October 2009    
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Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English fecchen, from Old English feċċan, fæċċan (“to fetch”). In one view, an alteration of fetian, fatian ("to fetch, marry"; whence also English fet), from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną (“to fetch”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“foot”).

cognates
Cognate with Dutch vatten (“to catch, grasp, understand”), German fassen (“to grasp, touch”), Faroese fata (“to grasp, understand”), Icelandic feta (“to go, step”). See foot. In another view, allied to Old English facian, fācian (“to acquire, get, obtain; try to obtain, wish for, desire; get to, reach”), related to Old English fǣċan (“to wish to go”), Icelandic fíkast (“to desire, covet, crave”), and perhaps to Old Frisian faka (“to prepare”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

fetch (third-person singular simple present fetches, present participle fetching, simple past and past participle fetched, or (archaic) fetcht)

  1. To retrieve; to bear towards; to go get.
    • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
      When they got home, the Rat made a bright fire in the parlour, and planted the Mole in an arm-chair in front of it, having fetched down a dressing-gown and slippers for him, and told him river stories till supper-time.
  2. To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
    If you put some new tyres on it, and clean it up a bit, the car should fetch about $ 5.000
  3. (nautical) To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.
  4. (intransitive) To bring one's self; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
  5. (rare, literary) To take (a breath), to heave (a sigh)

Translations[edit]

To retrieve; to bear towards; to get
To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Derived terms[edit]

Noun[edit]

fetch (plural fetches)

  1. The object of fetching; the source and origin of attraction; a force, quality or propensity which is attracting eg., in a given attribute of person, place, object, principle, etc.
  2. A stratagem by which a thing is indirectly brought to pass, or by which one thing seems intended and another is done; a trick; an artifice.
    • 1665, Robert South, "Jesus of Nazareth proved the true and only promised Messiah", in Twelve Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 3, 6th Edition, 1727
      Every little fetch of wit and criticism.
  3. The apparition of a living person; a wraith; one's double (seeing it is supposed to be a sign that one is fey or fated to die)

Derived terms[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fetch (comparative fetcher, superlative fetchest)

  1. (slang) attractive, popular
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