Just exactly where or how did "street fight" get coined?

Let's see if I can puzzle it out. Note, I have not been told the etymology of the term nor have I read any theories. Analytical problem solving and pattern recognition is my true master level kung fu. Questions like this will obsess me for months if I don't try to figure it out and confirm it through research, so thank you for that. ;) Luckily I really enjoy myself during the process so I don't mind.

I'm guessing it's a derivation of the phrases "from the mean streets", "living on the streets", "I'll put you out on the street". Now here's where I start trying to piece together little bits from all over creation... Going deeper I'm going to think about the term "street fight" being used to denote a dangerous and lethal fight, which is how it is often used. Why is that, I wonder... Homeless people "live on the streets", so do runaways and historically gangs of homeless people (beggars) and runaways banded together for safety and survived through criminal acts. Prostitutes (street walkers) are said to "walk the streets" or "stand on the street corner". Prostitutes are often oppressed victims of a greater criminal element, sometimes a pimp and sometimes an organized crime element. Where prostitutes gather, so there too do criminals and violence. In this context the streets, used by many as a general throughfare to elsewhere, is a dangerous and high risk environment for permanent residents.

I'm assuming that those who make their home on the streets must learn to survive by any means necessary including learning how to actually fight using the concepts of combat and survival rather than competition and honor (duels). So, violent fights witnessed by others on the "streets" would probably appear brutal and extreme to those not initiated in the nature of combat and violence. Witnessing or hearing stories about such fights would lead to adding the term "street fight" into the language and means "a brutal and deadly fight with no rules". "Street fight" under such usage is an uneducated synonym for combat because a true "street fight" is nothing more than combat; no more, no less.

Little teenage tough talkers can't say "I've been in combat many times and know what it takes to survive" but they can brutalize the synonym and twist it to sound like something else equally important and dangerous by saying "I've been in street fights many times and know what it takes to win them." Almost the same sentence but the word street fight has been hijacked and twisted to mean something less than combat but more dangerous and serious than just the word "fight".

The way "street fight" is often used is just a dirty linguistics trick to try and sound important, tough, or place emphasis on the "seriousness" of the question. The simple matter is the phrase "street fight" means the exact same thing as "combat" but that's not how it is often used.

Here are some interesting thoughts that whirled through my head as I thought about all this and wrote it down. "Where the rubber meets the road" indicates something is serious and it's the nitty gritty of the matter. "Meet the devil down by the cross-roads", where two "streets" intersect the devil may be there. Gangs often identify themselves by street names, for example the "Grape Street" gang of South Central LA. To be homeless on the streets of New York during the 1800's was to be one of the toughest, craftiest, sly survival fighters in existance. The gangs in New York during that time were of epic brutality and fights between them became stuff of legends. Those fights were on the "streets".

I made all of this up by digging around in my head and sifting through all the crap that is stuck in there. I don't know if it's true or not but it feels right. :)

That was fun! Thanks.

I don't think no one knows the origin of this term. But in today's terminology most people think of street fights as a fight done by experienced street thugs(gang members, etc). They assume this mean they are skilled and are able to beat up other because they fight all of the time. This can't be further from the truth. They justify or validate their assessment of the supposedly superior fighting ability which the success of Kimbo.

I seen on youtube these fights take place anywhere. It could be in the backyard, front yard, alley or a underground location.

But in reality a street fight in my opinion is an unsanctioned fight that take place wherever there is a conflict. Usually ego is involved. They happen in schoolyard, alleys, bars and clubs. They are likely to include weapons such as a gun, knife, stick, bat, pipe, chain, bottle(broken), etc. They are unpredictable, dangerous, and stupid.

This term is overused and misunderstood.

Children think "street fighting" is cool. They |arrange street fights" in alleys and such. When I hear the term street fight, I always think of 2 10 year-olds scrapping over the use of the Tonka truck. some people use the term street fight to mean any "fight" that isn't in a ring. I hate the term because it is misleading, and seems to have some kind of "glory" element for some. I never could see the glory in opening your mouth until someone knocks the teeth therefrom! You and I both know that it is either a fight (fights are sporting events like the UFC "fights"), or a defencive situation. You can win fight in a ring, but you only survive an altercation with a real attacker. I have done both, and if possible I would prefer never again to have to defend myself or others, but if and when I do it will be no fight. I will just survive, unless I don't.

Same as everybody else.

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, the picture that comes to mind when I hear the word "street fight" is usually that of Biker gangs in leather, fighting with chains, lead pipes or switchblades usually in a free for all rumble. I guess for the younger generation today, it means something else, my guess is, they grew up watching Jean Claude Van Damme movies and assumed people fought one on one like that in the streets.

The phrase "street fight' actually originates from the 1800's from gang fights in New York City. As people immigrated to the US, they ended up in New York. You had successive migrations of Irish, Italians, Jews, Germans and so forth that basically claimed parts of New York. These groups formed gangs, which really weren't meant to be criminal, just protective over a given people in a community. But these gangs would fight each other to settle disputes and claim rights over territory (which also gave them rights over businesses and transportation).

When these gangs fought each other, they did it out in the streets. Cops, afraid of getting hurt themselves or by just being bribed, rarely interveined. And these fights would include all manner of weapons too - make shift knives, clubs, guns and so forth. Some times these gangs would have "champions" and rather than having the whole of one gang fight another, these champions or leaders would duke it out to settle a dispute. These street fights were like riots and they were bloody and lead to even more feuding and violence. Even today there is a certain degree of animosity between ethnic groups in New York.

Probably from people that havent gotten in a real fight in their lives. A REAL fight happens anywhere u bump into an enemy whether its in the street or not. These kids think a fight happens in a ring.

to me street fighting basically means no rules. i have to think that this term had to be coined by a group of ppl/civalization that had an organized way of fighting. they probably saw that these fighters who just down right "disrespected" the conventional aspect of fighting (conventional to them anyway) was cut from a different cloth so to speak. i mean if street fighting was a norm to most ppl and if it was just some normal fighting in the street than it would just be called a "fight" by average fighters who choose to partake. this fact alone makes me think it had to be coined by a group who had some type of rules set in place...to set themselves apart.

Uneducated Synonym

i think it may have come as a misunderstanding to the meaning to the song Street fighting man by the rolling stones in the 60s

a fight on the street = streetfight