*SET-U

PERMANENT DISPUTE RECORD

ALL DISPUTES ↗
CLAIM / COUNTERCLAIM / LIMITRECORD 537

DISPUTE
RECORD.

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

resolvedestablished

Does the beginning-of-the-1300s record date the coinage of fiende?

No. It is the earliest use reported by SO, not a birth certificate. The inherited cross-Germanic formation predates the surviving Swedish record.

WORD UNDER REVIEWDISPUTE 537

fiende

fiˋende · Swedish common-gender noun

The ordinary Swedish noun for an enemy, opponent, hostile state, or figurative threat continues Old Swedish fiande or fiände and an inherited Germanic present-participial formation: literally the hating one. Svenska Akademiens current dictionary calls the word Common Germanic and gives the original force hatande; SAOB and Hellquist independently derive the noun from the fi(j)- hate verb behind Gothic fijan and Old Norse fjá. Modern Swedish hata belongs to a separate Germanic hat- family, so fiende is not transparently built from the verb Swedish speakers now use for hate. Historical Swedish also used Fienden for the Devil, but that branch is not the word’s only or current central meaning. All medieval and early-modern examples here are source-reported lexical records, not directly inspected manuscript objects.

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.

SOURCE 01supportscontemporary dictionary

Svensk ordbok — fiende

Provides a first-use horizon rather than a coinage date.

HISTORY: attested since the beginning of the 1300s in Skåne-Lagen
AUTHOR / EDITOR
Svenska Akademiens ordboksredaktion
YEAR
2026
PUBLISHER
Svenska Akademien
02 / EDITORIAL STATE

THE CURRENT RECORD IS RESOLVED.

CONFIDENCE
established
STATUS
resolved
LEGACY SOURCE SUMMARY
SO separates first attestation from etymology, and comparative sources place the formation at the reconstructed Germanic level.
RESOLUTION NOTE

The timeline says first reviewed Swedish evidence, never invention date.