fetch

Meanings

1. To retrieve; to bear towards; to go and get.
2. To obtain as price or equivalent; to sell for.
3. To bring or get within reach by going; to reach; to arrive at; to attain; to reach by sailing.
4. To bring oneself; to make headway; to veer; as, to fetch about; to fetch to windward.
5. To take (a breath); to heave (a sigh).
6. To cause to come; to bring to a particular state.
7. To recall from a swoon; to revive; sometimes with to.
8. To reduce; to throw.
9. To accomplish; to achieve; to perform, with certain objects or actions.
10. To make (a pump) draw water by pouring water into the top and working the handle.

1. An act of fetching, of bringing something from a distance.
2. An act of fetching data.
3. The object of fetching; the source of an attraction; a force, propensity, or quality which attracts.
4. An area over which wind is blowing (over water) and generating waves.
5. The length of such an area; the distance a wave can travel across a body of water (without obstruction).
6. A stratagem or trick; an artifice.
7. A game played with a dog in which a person throws an object for the dog to retrieve.

1. Minced oath for fuck.

1. The apparition of a living person; a person's double, the sight of which is supposedly a sign that they are fated to die soon, a doppelganger; a wraith (“a person's likeness seen just after their death; a ghost, a spectre”).

Etymology

The verb is derived from Middle English fecchen (“to get and bring back, fetch; to come for, get and take away; to steal; to carry away to kill; to search for; to obtain, procure”) [and other forms], from Old English feċċan, fæċċan, feccean (“to fetch, bring; to draw; to gain, take; to seek”), a variant of fetian, fatian (“to bring near, fetch; to acquire, obtain; to bring on, induce; to fetch a wife, marry”) and possibly related to Old English facian, fācian (“to acquire, obtain; to try to obtain; to get; to get to, reach”), both from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną (“to hold, seize; to fetch”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”). The English word is cognate with Dutch vatten (“to apprehend, catch; to grasp; to understand”), German fassen (“to catch, grasp; to capture, seize”), English fet (“(obsolete) to fetch”), Faroese fata (“to grasp, understand”), Danish fatte (“to grasp, understand”), Swedish fatta (“to grasp, understand”), Icelandic feta (“to go, step”), West Frisian fetsje (“to grasp”). The noun is derived from the verb.

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