*SET-U

PERMANENT DISPUTE RECORD

ALL DISPUTES ↗
CLAIM / COUNTERCLAIM / LIMITRECORD 470

DISPUTE
RECORD.

One scholarly question. Every attached source. The present editorial state, without pretending the last word has been written.

resolvedestablished

Did German Feind originally mean demon?

No. The High German record centers on enemy or adversary. DWB does document der böse Feind or der Feind for the Devil, but that is a historical specialization beside the ordinary enemy noun, not the original definition.

WORD UNDER REVIEWDISPUTE 470

Feind

/faɪ̯nt/ · German masculine noun

The modern German noun for a personal, political, military, or ideological enemy or opponent. Duden derives it through Middle High German vīnt or vīant and Old High German fīand, literally the hating one; DWDS dates Old High German fīant and fījant to the eighth century and identifies the Germanic ancestor as a petrified substantivized present participle. Grimm’s dictionary independently compares Gothic fijands, Old English fēond, English fiend, Dutch vijand, and Nordic forms, while warning that its own still-deeper foam hypothesis required confirmation. The reviewed route therefore follows the inherited enemy noun to reconstructed *fi(j)and- and *fi(j)ēn-, then treats *peh₁- as proposed and stops.

01

DIRECT CLAIM EVIDENCE

2 SOURCES WITH A STANCE

A citation is not a vote. Each record says whether the work supports, challenges, contradicts, or contextualizes the position—and identifies the exact locus used.

02 / EDITORIAL STATE

THE CURRENT RECORD IS RESOLVED.

CONFIDENCE
established
STATUS
resolved
LEGACY SOURCE SUMMARY
Duden and DWDS give enemy or opponent as the core; DWB separately records the Devil expression.
RESOLUTION NOTE

The dossier preserves the secondary Devil use without rewriting the German headword as a demon noun.