fetchfetch

The story

The verb is derived from Middle English fecchen (‘to get and bring back, fetch; to come for, get and take away; to steal; to carry away to kill; to search for; to obtain, procure’) [and other forms], from Old English feċċan, fæċċan, feccean (‘to fetch, bring; to draw; to gain, take; to seek’), a variant of fetian, fatian (‘to bring near, fetch; to acquire, obtain; to bring on, induce; to fetch a wife, marry’) and possibly related to Old English facian, fācian (‘to acquire, obtain; to try to obtain; to get; to get to, reach’), both from Proto-Germanic *fatōną, *fatjaną (‘to hold, seize; to fetch’), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (‘to step, walk; to fall, stumble’). The English word is cognate with Dutch vatten (‘to apprehend, catch; to grasp; to understand’), German fassen (‘to catch, grasp; to capture, seize’), English fet (‘(obsolete) to fetch’), Faroese fata (‘to grasp, understand’), Danish fatte (‘to grasp, understand’), Swedish fatta (‘to grasp, understand’), Icelandic feta (‘to go, step’), West Frisian fetsje (‘to grasp’).