Etymology: < defend v. Compare earlier defending n., defence n., defension n.

Etymology: < (i) Anglo-Norman defender, deffender, deffendier, diffendre, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French defendre, Anglo-Norman and Middle French deffendre (French défendre ) to protect oneself from attack, injury, or harm (end of the 10th cent., reflexive), to resist or ward off an attack on (a person, place, or thing) (c1100), to forbid (a person) from doing something (c1100), to forbid (an action or behaviour) (first half of the 12th cent.), to deny the truth of or contest (a charge, allegation, etc.) (mid 12th cent.), to protect oneself from the harmful effects of something (late 12th cent., reflexive, in defendre de quelque chose ), to argue in favour of (an opinion, practice, etc.) (beginning of the 13th cent. or earlier), to put up a defence (c1240 or earlier), to contend (beginning of the 15th cent. in defendre que ), in Anglo-Norman also to ward off (an attack or attacker) (late 13th cent. or earlier), and its etymon (ii) classical Latin dēfendere to ward off, to avert, to rebut, refute, to act in defence of, to protect, to shelter, shield, to speak or write in defence of, to plead for, to uphold, justify, to say by way of defence, to plead (a case) for the defence, in post-classical Latin also to forbid (late 2nd or early 3rd cent. in Tertullian), to cure, treat, counteract (a disease, poison, etc.) (end of the 13th cent. in the passage translated in quot. a1400 at sense 6b), to uphold a thesis (16th cent. in a British source) < dē- de- prefix + -fendere (see offend v.).Compare Old Occitan defendre (a1126), Catalan defendre (late 11th cent.), Spanish defender (12th cent.), Portuguese defender (late 13th cent.), Italian difendere (early 13th cent.). In sense 3b after French défendre (1709 or earlier in this sense).