feint

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   deceive by a mock action

   The midfielder feinted to shoot.

Simplified etymology

Feint entered English in the late 17th century as a fencing term for a deceptive blow and comes from the same French and Latin source as faint and feign: French faindre, from Latin fingere, “to form” or “contrive.” The mid-19th-century name for lightly lined paper is instead a respelling of faint.

The noun is borrowed from French feinte (“dummy, feint”), from feindre (“to fake, feign”), from Old French feindre, faindre, from Latin fingere, the present active infinitive of fingō (“to alter the truth to deceive, dissemble, feign, pretend; to fashion, form, shape”). The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates * Italian finta * Occitan fencha, fenha * Old Spanish finta (modern Spanish finta (“dummy, feint”))

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