Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith Talk Forums General Topics Q&A about words Ironing Out Wrinkles
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
it appears that, once again, Mrs. B. has fallen victim to [benefit of doubt] space limitations:
[AF. spelling of OF. fiz (pronounced fits):—earlier filz:—Lat. filius son.
The form is due to the phonetic law in OF. that a palatalized l caused a succeeding s to become ts (written z).]
The Anglo-French word for ‘son’; chiefly Hist. in patronymic designations, in which it was followed by the name of a parent in the uninflected genitive. Some of these survive as surnames, e.g. Fitzherbert, Fitzwilliam, etc.; in later times new surnames of the kind have been given to the illegitimate children of royal princes. †Also in 12–15th c. used occas. in adopted AF. phrases, beau fitz = ‘fair son’; fiz a putain = ‘whoreson’.
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,916Posts230,393Members9,211 Most Online12,483
Mar 28th, 2026
Newest Members Boo boo kitty fu, peterreineck, Peripatetic Toad, JerryC, blvd
9,211 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 18
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 11,214tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,974Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith Talk