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The etymology of fencing was a trade
(aussie.zone)
An interesting bit of etymology that I learnt recently.
The English word "fencing" (as in sword fighting) comes from English "defence", from Old French "defens", from Latin "defendere", meaning "to ward off, defend".
The French word for fencing is "escrime". The Italian and Spanish words are also close cognates with French. "Escrime" comes from Old French "escremir", from Frankish "*skirmjan".
That means English, a Germanic language, gets its word from Latin, a Romance language.
And the Romance languages of French, Spanish, and Italian get their word from Frankish, a Germanic language.
Essentially, the Romance and Germanic language families did a trade.
Neat.
Is there a connection of the Frankish (or Latin) to PIE?
There's always a connection to PIE (or seems to be). I'm curious if both words connect there somehow.
Yes, exact placement of sub families (and existence of italo-celtic) are debated, but it is definitely part of PIE
Edit: as for these two words, they are reconstructed as coming from different roots, skirmjam from *(s)ker. (Meaning to cut, Shear in modern English), and fendere from *bʰeyd (meaning to split, bunch of words in modern English)
Escrime seems to trace itself back to PIE *sker- (1) "to cut." Fence goes back to *gwhen- "to strike, kill".
So no, no relation.