Sacian

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Old English verb meaning to contest or struggle against another person in a quarrel or dispute
2. An Old English word for striving or contending with someone, often in an argument or fight
3. Used in Old English to describe engaging in strife, contention, or a heated dispute with an opponent

Etymology: Old English "sacian" meant "to contend, to quarrel, to fight against an opponent," and it belonged to the legal and combative vocabulary of early English. Its root sense was closer to "to accuse" or "to go to law," since the noun "sacu" meant "strife, litigation, a lawsuit," and it shares ancestry with the Old Norse and Germanic words for a cause or dispute. The same root gives the modern "sake," which descends from a phrase meaning "for the cause of," so the idea of pursuing a quarrel and the idea of pursuing a goal once sat very close together. Because it survived only in Old English texts and then dropped out of use, it is rarely seen today. Its ancestry lies in Proto-Germanic "*sakō," meaning a dispute or case at law, which is why the word's earliest meanings revolve around courts and accusations rather than physical blows.