Etymology: Old English fitt strong feminine = Old Saxon *fittia, preserved in latinized form in the preface to the Hêliand: ‘Juxta morem vero illius poematis, omne opus per vitteas distinxit, quas nos lectiones vel sententias possumus appellare’. Some regard the word as identical with Old High German fiza list of cloth, modern German fitze skein of yarn, also explained in the 17th cent. as ‘the thread with which weavers mark off a day's work’; the sense ‘division or canto of a poem’ might well be a transferred use of this. The German word corresponds to Old Norse fit strong feminine, hem, also ‘web’ of a bird's foot < Old Germanic *fitjâ , of unknown origin: see remarks under fit n.²

Etymology: Old English fitt, strong, of uncertain gender; recorded only once; the sense ‘conflict’ seems probable from the context. The Old Germanic type *fitjo- , -jâ is not found in any other language with any of the senses explained below. It is possible, however, that the word may be cognate or even identical with fit n.¹, and that the primitive sense may have been ‘juncture’, ‘meeting’; compare the verbs Icelandic fitja to knit, early modern Dutch vitten ‘to accommodate, to fitt, to serve’ (Hexham); on this supposition fit n.³, fit adj., fit v.¹ would also be cognate.

Etymology: Middle English fitte , perhaps < Old English *fitta, of obscure origin; possibly < Old English fitt , fit n.²It might be supposed to be a substantive use of fit adj., but that word has not been found before the 15th cent., and is perhaps a derivative of this.

Etymology: < fit v.¹

Etymology: First recorded c1440; possibly < fit n.³, though as that word is known only from a solitary instance the derivation is very doubtful. The adjective is recorded a century earlier than the modern verb, and appears to be its source; the view that it is a past participle of the verb fitte to marshal troops (see fit v.¹ 1) is tenable only on the assumption that the verb had an unrecorded wider sense. To some extent the adjective appears to have been influenced in meaning by feat adj.

Etymology: Sense 1, found only in the Morte Arthur c 1400, is of uncertain etymology, but may possibly be < fit n.³ Apart from this use, the word first appears late in 16th cent. when it was presumably a new formation on fit adj. The coincidence of form and meaning with the 16–17th cent. Dutch and Flemish vitten to suit, agree, adapt, is remarkable, but most probably the two words have developed their identical sense independently by different processes, though they may be from the same ultimate root. In modern editions of 15th cent. works, the words sit , besit (= to be becoming), sitting (= becoming) are often misprinted fit , befit , fitting ; the latter do not appear to be older than the Elizabethan period, but when once introduced they rapidly superseded the older synonyms; probably owing to their obvious connection with fit adj., they were felt to express the meaning more forcibly.