Duden — Feind
Publishes the independent High German continuation.
Herkunft: Middle and Old High German stages- 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 borrowing is established. German Feind continues Old and Middle High German forms; English fiend independently continues Old English fēond. Both branches meet at reconstructed *fi(j)and-.
/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.
Publishes the independent High German continuation.
Herkunft: Middle and Old High German stagesPlaces both branches beneath the common formation.
p. 47 note 24, branch parallels from *fi(j)and-Publishes the independent English line.
Etymology: Old English fēond to English fiend, with German Feind as cognateThe graph joins the words at the Germanic formation and draws no English-to-German arrow.