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In some parts of the southern United States, the word feist (pronounced to rhyme with heist) has been used since the 18th century as a term for a small dog used in hunting more diminutive game animals (such as squirrels). The word comes from the much older, now obsolete word fisting (pronounced as “feisting” would be) meaning “breaking wind,” which was used scornfully in the 16th and 17th centuries to describe gassy pooches. Feisty developed in the late 19th century, its flatulent origin lost, but its small-dog association still visible with a squint: the term conveys the spunk and determination that one may associate with a dog that manages to make its presence known, through its bark or its bite—or perhaps even its indifference to olfactory decorum—despite its small size.
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Examples of feisty in a Sentence
Wynonna Judd, quoted in Rolling Stone, 8-22 July 1993
Humorist Cynthia Heimel never plays it safe, bless her feisty little heart. She's outrageous and hilarious, daring to say exactly what she and millions of other women really think …
—Donna Seaman, Booklist, 15 May 1993
… Milwaukee was the last major industrial city to elect a Socialist mayor—Frank P. Zeidler, a feisty octogenarian who teaches today at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee …
—Charles P. Pierce, Village Voice, 10 Mar. 1992
She never tired of hearing anecdotes from her childhood, and she particularly liked to hear how feisty she had been …
—Lorene Cary, Black Ice, 1991
The novel features a feisty heroine.
Even her opponents admire her feisty spirit.
New Atlas, 19 Jan. 2025
Now, the task gets dramatically more difficult against a bona fide Super Bowl contender in front of the feisty Lions fans at Ford Field.
—Jim Reineking, USA TODAY, 17 Jan. 2025
Forever, Michael has some funky, feisty music, but it’s ultimately overpowered by schmaltz.
—Al Shipley, SPIN, 16 Jan. 2025
Leading this loud and lovingly close-knit multigenerational family is Suga Mama (Jo Marie Payton), the feisty grandma and matriarch.
—Lynnette Nicholas, Parents, 15 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Feisty.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feisty. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.
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