Did the French invent fencing and why is it called "fencing"?

 This is actually quite interesting. Although we tend to associate fencing with the French, probably because we’ve all watched the Three Musketeers, I think that the Spanish may have a prior claim, as may Italy.

Fencing involves duelling with épées, sabres, or, most commonly foils. The foil derives from the small sword or court sword, épée de cour, which itself evolved from the Spanish rapier, the espada ropera, or dress sword. The espada ropera was a light, straight, slender, sharply pointed two-edged long blade wielded in one hand and used for duelling and self-defence - a thrusting sword. The first mention of the espada ropera dates back to the 1450s and carrying a rapier became an essential status symbol for a gentleman from the 16th Century onwards. Fencing with the rapier was simply called la verdadera destreza or the true skill and descended from the older esgrima vulgar or common fencing.

As to the origin of the term, the martial art and the archetypal white picket fence both have the same etymological source. Fence and fencing both derive from the word defend.

Defend and defence come to English, via French, from the Latin defendere. This is a compound word with the prefix de- (away from) and the suffix fendere (to split or strike). Offend and offense also stem from fendere.

In English, defendere became defence and, at some point in the 14th Century, just fence. Fence began its life meaning the same as defence, but then found a more physical form. If you needed to defend an area, you might construct a barrier around it and, by the mid-15th century, that type barrier was called a fence.

Also, you might be forced to defend yourself with a sword and by the end of the 16th century that type of swordplay had come to be known as fencing. This type of reduction can also be seen in the fencibles, a type of defensive militia employed in England and thus in the United States.

While some people were fencing their properties and others were fencing on their properties, another group was using secrecy as a defence. The notion that thieves would sell stolen their goods under the defence of secrecy is how, in the 17th century, fencing also became a crime.

The verb fend is also a shortening of defend, and defender was shortened to fender, which explains what Americans have on their cars, and also what stops boats and ships rubbing against the dock.