underfang
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English underfangen, underfongen, undervongen, from Old English underfōn (“to receive, obtain, take, accept, take in, entertain, take up, undertake, assume, adopt, submit to, undergo, steal”), from Proto-Germanic *under + *fanhaną (“to take, receive”), equivalent to under- + fang. Cognate with Dutch ondervangen (“to overcome, forestall”), German unterfangen (“to venture, dare”).
Verb
editunderfang (third-person singular simple present underfangs, present participle underfanging, simple past and past participle underfanged)
- (transitive, obsolete) To undertake.
- (transitive, obsolete) To accept; receive.
- (transitive, obsolete) To insnare; entrap; deceive by false suggestions.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- For that he is so puissant and so strong, / That with his powre he all doth overgo, / And makes them subject to his mighty wrong; / And some by sleight he eke doth underfong.
- (transitive, obsolete) To support or guard from beneath.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms prefixed with under-
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with quotations