Where does “street fighter” come from?

street fighter (English) comes from English street, from Middle English strete, from Old English strǣt, from Proto-West Germanic strātu, from Latin strāta, from Latin strātus, from Latin sternō, from Proto-Italic stornō — sterile, infertile.

street fighter (English): A person who regularly fights in the streets

Definitions

  1. A person who regularly fights in the streets

Ancestry of “street fighter”, step by step

street fighter traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English street

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishstreetA paved part of road, usually in a village or a...
2Middle EnglishstreteA road or path connecting two settlements or...
3Old Englishstrǣtroad; a road, a town-road, a street, a paved...
4Proto-West Germanicstrātustreet, paved road
5Latinstrātaa paved road
6Latinstrātus
7Latinsternōto spread, stretch out, spread out
8Proto-Italicstornō
9Proto-Indo-Europeanstr̥-n-h₃-
10Proto-Indo-Europeansterh₃-to spread, extend, stretch out
11Proto-Indo-Europeanster-sterile, infertile

via English fighter

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishfighterA person who fights; a combatant; A warrior;...
2Middle EnglishfightereA soldier or combatant; a person in combat
3Old Englishfeohterefighter, warrior
4Old English-eremasculine agent suffix, originally applied only...
5Proto-West Germanic-ārī-er
6Proto-Germanic-ārijaz-er
7Latin-āriuser
8Proto-Italic*-āziosForms relational adjectives to nouns (and rarely numerals)
Every word from Proto-Indo-European ster-