Other forms: fists
A fist is your hand closed tight into a ball. Fingers in, thumb across the outside.
It is the shape of anger and of celebration equally, since people shake a fist in fury and punch the air in delight. A fist bump is a greeting, and a clenched fist is a political symbol. The word gives English several phrases: making a good fist of something means doing it creditably, and a fistful is as much as one hand will hold. The adjective is not fisty, and the related word for fighting is fisticuffs.
1nounfistA hand with the fingers curled tightly into the palm.
“He banged his fist on the table.”
Proto-Indo-European
*pewǵ- — to punch; to prick, stab
Proto-West Germanic
*fūsti — fist
Old English
fȳst — fist
Middle English
fist
English, today
fist
From Middle English fist, from Old English fȳst (“fist”), from Proto-West Germanic fūsti (“fist”), of unknown origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European pewǵ- (“to punch; to prick, stab”). 2 Cognate with yol fest, hist (“fist”), stq Fäste, Fääste (“fist”), West Frisian fûst (“fist”), gmw-cfr Fuus (“fist”), cim bòista, vòista (“fist”), Dutch vuist (“fist”), German Faust (“fist”), Low German Fuust (“fist”), lb Fauscht (“fist”), wym faojst, faust (“fist”), Yiddish פֿויסט (“fist”); also Irish fuaigh (“sew, stitch”), Latin pugnus (“fist”), Ancient Greek πυγμή (“fist”), πύκτης (“boxer, pugilist”), Lithuanian kumštis (“fist”), Bulgarian пестник (“fist; punch”), Czech pěst (“fist”), Polish pięść (“fist”), Russian пясть (“metacarpus”), Serbo-Croatian пе̏ст, pȅst, пѐсница, pèsnica (“fist”), Slovak päsť (“fist”), Slovene pest (“fist”). More at five.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA