You’ll need to be fighting fit to get your head around this one.
If ‘fit for fight’ doesn’t sound very Danish to you, that’s because there are no Danish words in it ‒ the expression is composed entirely of English words.
So how can it be a Danish expression? Well, it’s only used in the Danish language and if you said it to an English speaker, it might sound a bit jarring or could be misunderstood.
If you say you are ‘fit for fight’ to a Dane, however, they will know exactly what you mean: ready for action, up for the challenge, or even fighting fit.
English-language expressions and words commonly make their way into the Danish language. This can be in their original form, for example “fifty-fifty” or the more recent “download”; or they can be translated, like with calm down now (“easy now”) or the elephant in the room (“the elephant in the room”).
‘Fit for fight’ is neither of these, but an expression using English words that probably has its roots in a corruption of a real English expression, namely “fighting fit”.
The concept of ‘Danglish’ ‒ spoken English that is heavily influenced by the speaker’s native Danish ‒ is therefore probably also responsible in part for ‘fit for fight’. Danglish is usually thought of as heavily accented English or sentences with Danish grammatical structure, but here we have a Danish expression that appears to be a manifestation of it, too.
Example sentences:
I was really lazy this morning, but now I’m fit for the fight and coming to the party.
I felt really unwell this morning, but I’m now fighting fit and coming to the party.
He didn’t seem very fit for the fight, but delivered a good performance in the second set.
He didn’t seem fully fit, but put in a good performance in the second set.
