"fighting tooth and nail"

What is the history of this phrase?

I always assumed that the nails involved were the kind at the ends of one's fingers. Though nails of the six-penny dreadful kind are cognate.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jheem,

Chas Earle Funk has this to say: "... with tooth and nail became an English phrase signifying 'with all the powers at one's command.' The old Latin equivalent was toto corpore atque omnibus ungulis 'with all the body and every nail.' In France it's bec et ongles closely approaching our English phrase, but with the literal meaning 'beak and talons.'" [Heavens to Betsy! & Other Curious Sayings, p.205, 1955]

Fighting hard? As opposed to fighting flaccid?

The latter may prove to be rather less distracting!

I always thought it funny that "fighting hard" is the opposite of "hardly fighting."

Just like "working hard" and "hardly working" are opposites.

Tinman