Duden — Feind
Centers modern and historical Feind on enemy or opponent.
Bedeutungen and Herkunft- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Dudenredaktion
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Cornelsen Verlag
PERMANENT DISPUTE RECORD
ALL DISPUTES ↗One scholarly question. Every attached source. The present editorial state, without pretending the last word has been written.
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.
/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.
DIRECT CLAIM EVIDENCE
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.
Centers modern and historical Feind on enemy or opponent.
Bedeutungen and HerkunftDocuments a secondary German Devil use without making it original.
Bd. 3, Sp. 1459, der böse Feind and der Feind for the DevilThe dossier preserves the secondary Devil use without rewriting the German headword as a demon noun.