underfang
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From 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[edit]
underfang (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