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Tuesday 5 April 2011

Thing To Do Today - be feisty.

I always snigger to myself whenever I hear someone referred to as feisty (it's always women, isn't it? I wonder why.)

It used to mean aggressive, nervous or touchy, but now tends to mean spirited or bossy.

The word came to Britain and Australia not long ago from America, but it must have been British originally because feisty comes from the dialect words feist and  fist, which mean small dog.

As if that's not bad enough, fist is related to the Old English word fisting which means what the Collins dictionary delicately refers to as breaking wind.

Does that mean those feisty ladies are all old farts?

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