An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Fist

by Friedrich Kluge

Fist, masculine, ‘fart,’ from the equivalent Middle High German vist, masculine; akin to the equivalent Dutch veest, Anglo-Saxon fist. A common Aryan root pezd appears in Latin pêdo for pezdo, as well as in Greek βδέω, from *βσδέω, Lithuanian bezdù (bezděti), Hence Teutonic fisti- is to be explained by Aryan pezd-i-. From the verbal noun fist a verbal root fī̆s, ‘pedere,’ was inferred in very early times. Compare Old Icelandic físa.