From Middle Dutch ei , from Old Dutch * ei , from Proto-West Germanic * aij , from Proto-Germanic * ajją .
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WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCALNo exact match for “ei” in this partial English subset. That does not mean the full research corpus—or linguistic scholarship—has no record. Check the original dictionary entry ↗
INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Lewis’s Elementary Latin Dictionary
1890 American Book Company edition; pinned Perseus XML digitizationei
This word is outside the curated dossier collection. Here is the dictionary’s etymology, with its language and revision preserved. These claims have not yet passed *SET-U’s graph review.
From the digraph itself.
From the Proto-Finno-Ugric negative verb stem * e- ~ * ä- ~ * a- . Cognates include Finnish ei and Northern Sami ii .
From Old Galician-Portuguese eu , from Inherited from Late Latin eo , from Classical Latin egō̆ .
From Old Norse eigi .
The indicative forms are from Proto-Finnic * e- , from Proto-Uralic * e- ( negative verb stem ) . The imperative forms are from Proto-Finnic * älä- , from the Proto-Finno-Ugric negative imperative verb stem * älä- ~ * elä- .
Noteworthy forms include eivät (replacing earlier evät by influence from the third-person singular ei ). For more forms, see the Proto-Finnic and Proto-Uralic pages.
Cognates for the indicative forms include Estonian ei , Karelian ei , Livonian ä’b , Veps ei , Northern Sami ii , Skolt Sami ij , Erzya а- ( a- ) , э- ( e- ) , и- ( i- ) , Eastern Mari ы- ( y- ) , Udmurt уг ( ug ) , Komi-Zyrian оз ( oz ) , Northern Mansi [script needed] ( ä- ) , Forest Enets [script needed] ( i- ) , Northern Selkup [script needed] ( aša ) ( Taz ) and Kamassian ей ( ej ) . Cognates for the imperative forms include Estonian ära , Northern Sami ale , Kildin Sami ель ( jel’ ) , Erzya иля ( iľa ) .
Not related to Swedish ej , Icelandic ei , Old Norse eigi , despite the similarity; the Finnic and Norse terms are false cognates .
For the “caressing” sense compare Dutch aaien .
From Old Norse ei . A clipping of eigi , from Proto-Germanic * ni aiw-gin ( “ never ” ) , from * ne , * ni ( “ not ” ) + * aiw ( “ always, for ever ” ) + * -gin . Not related to Finnish ei ( “ no ” ) .
Read the complete entry and references ↗ · Contribute a cited dossier
0112
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
nounhistorical-form prefix
icon
An image, likeness, representative figure, or display symbol, borrowed through Late Latin from Greek eikōn.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗German masculine nouncontrarian claim
Feind
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.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗German masculine nouncontrarian claim
Freund
German Freund continues Middle High German vriunt and Old High German friunt. DWDS/Pfeifer, Duden, and Grimm independently analyze the inherited Germanic formation as a substantivized present participle of the verb represented by Gothic frijōn and Old English frēogan: historically a loving or favorably disposed one. The record is semantically wider than a modern close companion: the historical dictionaries also document neighbor, relative, lover, ally, supporter, patron, address, and euphemistic uses. The graph joins the High German line to the same reviewed *frijōnd- and *frī- nodes as English friend, keeps *prī- proposed, and stops.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗German masculine nouncontrarian claim
Hass
The modern German noun for intense aversion, rejection, or hostility toward a person, group, or institution. Duden traces Middle and Old High German haʒ to suffering, sorrow, and resentment and records the 1996 spelling change from Haß to Hass. DWDS/Pfeifer reports the Old High German noun from the eighth century and places it in the Germanic family of Old Saxon heti, Old English hete, Old Norse hatr, Gothic hatis, and related forms. Grimm’s DWB preserves a more complicated semantic record: hostile pursuit or action, anger expressed in deeds, ordinary hostile disposition, and even measured rivalry during friendly competition. The reviewed route reuses *hatiz- and the qualified *ḱh₂d-es- / *ḱeh₂d- comparison, then stops.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
alpaca
An English animal and fiber word borrowed through Spanish from Aymara allpaqa / allphaqa.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun · adjectivehistorical form
arithmetic
The art or practice of counting and calculation; transmitted from Greek arithmos “number” through Latin and French.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
boy
A male child or young man; Middle English also used the word for a male servant or churl, and its origin remains disputed.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
bridegroom
A man about to be or recently married; remodeled from bridegome after the older man-word gome became opaque.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verb · nounhistorical form
check
To verify, restrain, mark, or issue a bank draft today; a word whose oldest English history begins with a threatened king in chess.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
chess
The board game whose English name arrives through French chess vocabulary, with competing scholarly accounts of the deeper Persian and Arabic route.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verb · noun · adjectivedossier summary
collect
To bring together, accumulate, infer, or receive; from Latin colligere, literally built with a together-prefix and legere.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
conscience
The moral sense or awareness of one's conduct, inherited through medieval French from the Latin knowing-family.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗0212
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Ancient Greek / Indo-European
εἰκών
eikṓnrepresentation, image, or likeness
- DATE
- Ancient Greek
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*(dh)ghm̥-on-
earthling; human being
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European suffixed zero-grade formation
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*(dh)ghom-on-
earthling; human being
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European suffixed formation
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*dheigh-
to form; build
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European centum form
- MATCH
- transliteration
- DOSSIERS
- 5
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*dheig̑h-
to form; build
- DATE
- oldest Proto-Indo-European form
- MATCH
- transliteration
- DOSSIERS
- 5
Proto-Germanic / Indo-European
*gumōn-
man; human being
- DATE
- Proto-Germanic
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*h₂rei-
to count
- DATE
- Indo-European prehistory
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*man-¹
man; human being
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European root
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Germanic / Indo-European
*mann-
human being; person
- DATE
- Proto-Germanic
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*manu-
human being; man
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European extended form
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*skei-
cut, split; proposed source of a discern > know development
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European prehistory
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 7
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*wer-³
to perceive; watch out for
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European root
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 0
0324
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 12
openprobableposition text
Did English receive December through Old English or French?
The reviewed source allows either Old English or Anglo-French transmission from Latin and does not choose between them.
openprobableposition text
Is the exact phonetic shape of *fi(j)and- directly known?
No. The form is a comparative reconstruction. Optional j notation, branch vowels, and the relation of written historical variants require analysis rather than direct Proto-Germanic observation.
openproposedposition text
Is the deepest *peh₁- route established?
No. The Germanic verb and lexicalized agent formation are firmer than the proposed Indo-European comparison, whose formal intermediates and semantic unity remain reconstructive.
openprobableposition text
Can the lexicalization of one who hates as enemy be dated to one exact event?
No unique event is known. Cross-branch evidence places it before the recorded daughter languages, but no text records the prehistoric lexicalization moment.
openprobableposition text
Does the English record begin in the 13th or 15th century?
The reviewed source reports differ. Etymonline gives mid-thirteenth-century arsmetike; Merriam-Webster gives a fifteenth-century first-known-use horizon.
openproposedposition text
Is the deepest counting root *h₂rei- or *erei-dhmo- from *re-?
The references use different levels and notations: Merriam-Webster derives the Greek base through *h₂rei-, while Etymonline prints an expanded *erei-dhmo- formation tied to *re-.
openprobableposition text
What is the earliest surviving use of cais in either sense?
Not established here. eDIL supplies located citations but the underlying objects and dates were not normalized or directly inspected for an earliest-use audit.
openproposedposition text
Does knowing securely descend from cutting or splitting?
No. The *skei- comparison is published, but the exact formation of Latin scīre and the semantic bridge from separating to knowing remain disputed.
openboundaryposition text
Can icon be securely reconstructed beyond Greek eikōn?
Not from the reviewed evidence. Merriam-Webster calls the proposed deeper base uncertain and a Lithuanian comparison doubtful; Etymonline likewise stops at uncertain Greek prehistory.
openprobableposition text
Does the English record begin in 1588 or the 1590s?
The reports differ slightly: Merriam-Webster gives 1588 and Etymonline gives the 1590s. Neither date proves the word was coined then.
openproposedposition text
Does fiende securely descend from exactly *peh₁-?
Only as a qualified modern proposal. Kroonen publishes the route; Hellquist records a historically different deeper comparison, and neither recovers a written ancestral token or unique original semantic scene.
openprobableposition text
Are fijan and fian separate Gothic verbs?
No separate lexeme is supported, but the formal history remains analytical. Project Wulfila redirects fian to fijan, Streitberg groups j-bearing and j-less forms, and Sturtevant discusses loss of j in the sequence.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 12
RANK 10GRADE Acontrarian claim
Andean neighbors need not be linguistic cousins.
Alpaca comes from Aymara while llama comes from Quechua: the words travel through Spanish from different families.
RANK 14GRADE Aranked reveal
Arithmetic put the “ithm” into algorithm without becoming its ancestor.
Arithmetic carries Greek arithmos “number.” Algorithm carries al-Khwārizmī's name; arithmos influenced its spelling, not its genealogy.
RANK 15GRADE Acontrarian claim
The modern stigma of Weib is not the timeless nature of wīb.
Duden marks modern Weib increasingly discriminatory, while Old High German records preserve wīb in old-woman and wife expressions; the deeper origin remains unresolved.
RANK 21GRADE Aranked reveal
King comes from the kin family; kin does not come from king.
English kin independently continues Old English cynn and Germanic *kunja-. The royal title is a separate suffixed formation on that lineage base, so the shared letters preserve real morphology without making either modern word the parent of the other.
RANK 24GRADE Acontrarian claim
Hatred is medieval—and its -red means neither red nor “more.”
Middle English assembled hate with a dying native element for a state or condition. The compound is younger than its parts; below the secure Germanic hate family, even the celebrated PIE root remains a qualified and semantically difficult proposal.
RANK 26GRADE Aranked reveal
Old English hated vices and deeds as well as people.
Bosworth–Toller’s Pastoral Care examples make conduct grammatical: rulers hate their subjects’ vices, and the text distinguishes loving what enemies are from hating what they do. The historical verb therefore records directed moral and hostile judgment, not only an inward emotion label.
RANK 30GRADE Aranked reveal
Gothic hatis—the noun related to English hate—survives chiefly as wrath, including the wrath to come and the wrath of God.
Project Wulfila reports fifteen tokens in hatis, hatiza, and hatize. Fourteen are biblical; Streitberg maps the family chiefly to Greek orgē, gives Galatians 5:20 thumos, and flags Ephesians 4:31 because both stand together. Codex Argenteus folio 129r directly preserves hatiza in “the wrath to come.” Even the paradigm resists simplification: synchronic neuter a-stem, historically an i-stem remodeled into it.
RANK 32GRADE Aranked reveal
Enemy is a fossilized hater—but 21 Gothic tokens still refuse to choose.
Project Wulfila lists 42 candidates under fijan and 26 under the enemy noun fijands. Their intersection is exactly 21 surface tokens. Ayora Estevan explains the collision: *fi(j)and- had lexicalized as enemy before Gothic, while Gothic still possessed the productive present participle one who hates. Case and syntax resolve some passages; the remaining 21 stay public as noun-versus-participle ambiguity.
RANK 33GRADE Aranked reveal
Enemy is a fossilized hater—but lexicalization does not make every token transparent.
Project Wulfila lists 26 candidates under the Gothic enemy noun and 42 under the verb fijan; exactly 21 surface tokens belong to both inventories. Ayora Estevan explains why: Proto-Germanic had already lexicalized one who hates as enemy, while Gothic retained the productive participle. The five noun-only tokens are directly inspected; the 21-token overlap remains public instead of being counted twice as certainty.
RANK 36GRADE Acontrarian claim
German Feind is English fiend’s undemonic cousin: both fossilize one who hates.
Duden, DWDS/Pfeifer, and Grimm independently carry Feind through Middle and Old High German to a substantivized hating participle. OED places English fiend on the collateral Old English branch. German retained the ordinary enemy or opponent at its semantic center; English turned the cognate toward Devil, demon, and vicious person.
RANK 38GRADE Aranked reveal
Old High German fīant was already a noun—but in fixed phrases its old participial character could still shine through.
AWB calls fîant / fîjant a strong masculine noun, then isolates fixed formulas where its old participial character can still shine through. Fîant uuesan could mean be hostile, hate someone, or wish someone ill; fîant mahhôn meant make hostile; zi fîante tuon could mean regard as an enemy or hate. Beside it, AWB records the live weak verb fîên, to hate, in eighth- and ninth-century Alemannic manuscripts. The word is therefore more revealing than a simple literal gloss: it is a lexicalized noun whose older verbal architecture remained locally visible in syntax.
RANK 39GRADE Aranked reveal
Old Norse fjándi was an enemy before it was the Devil.
Cleasby and Vigfússon identify the inherited -nd- shape as participial and gloss the older formation as properly a hater. Their first sense is the ordinary enemy; only after the introduction of Christianity does the historical account assign fjándi the fiend branch. ONP then reveals how far the word traveled: 222 citations across enemy, demon, evil spirit, pagan god, Satan, and derogatory uses for hated or bewitched beings and things. The truth is not that every enemy secretly hates. It is that a lexicalized agent noun became an ordinary social category, then accumulated new religious and expressive work.
0412
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
scholarly reference48 CLAIM LINKS
Indo-European Root: dheigh-
Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors / 2022
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗research database42 CLAIM LINKS
Lemma fijan — Gothic dictionary and 42-token candidate inventory
Project Wulfila editors · Wilhelm Streitberg / 2026
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary38 CLAIM LINKS
Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch — fîant, fîjant
Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch editorial team
publisherAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary35 CLAIM LINKS
Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch — fîên
Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch editorial team
publisherAUDIT EVERY USE ↗research database32 CLAIM LINKS
Lemma fijands — Gothic enemy noun and 26-token candidate inventory
Project Wulfila editors · Wilhelm Streitberg / 2026
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗etymological dictionary31 CLAIM LINKS
Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands — vijand
Marlies Philippa · Frans Debrabandere · Arend Quak · Tanneke Schoonheim · Nicoline van der Sijs / 2009
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗etymological dictionary29 CLAIM LINKS
DWDS — Feind, etymology after Wolfgang Pfeifer
Wolfgang Pfeifer · DWDS editorial team / 2026
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗etymological dictionary29 CLAIM LINKS
DWDS — Hass, etymology after Wolfgang Pfeifer
Wolfgang Pfeifer · DWDS editorial team / 2026
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗etymological dictionary28 CLAIM LINKS
Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands — vriend
Marlies Philippa · Frans Debrabandere · Arend Quak · Tanneke Schoonheim · Nicoline van der Sijs / 2009
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗etymological dictionary23 CLAIM LINKS
DWDS — Freund, etymology after Wolfgang Pfeifer
Wolfgang Pfeifer · DWDS editorial team / 2026
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗institutional lexicon20 CLAIM LINKS
hetzen — Rechtschreibung, Bedeutung, Definition, Herkunft
Dudenredaktion
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary19 CLAIM LINKS
Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm — feind, m.
Jacob Grimm · Wilhelm Grimm · Trier Center for Digital Humanities / 2025
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗0512
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Mark 1:11
liufs / liufs / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 276 — folio 57v, Mark 1:6–13witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Luke 1:71
hatan / hatan / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 145 — folio 123r, Luke 1:69–77witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Luke 6:27
hatan / hatan / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 186 — folio 143v, Luke 6:25–30witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, John 12:25
fijan / fijan / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 96 — folio 76v, John 12:19–25witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Luke 1:71
fijan / fijan / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 145 — folio 123r, Luke 1:69–77witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Matthew 5:43
fijands / fijands / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 6 — folio 3v, Matthew 5:42–47witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Luke 1:74
fijands / fijands / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 145 — folio 123r, Luke 1:69–77witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Bókin dýra, Elucidarius
hatr / hatr / c.1150-1200
AM 674 a 4°, Bókin dýra — manuscript record and imageswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
John Harris’s Lexicon technicum prints ETYMOLOGY as a headword and defines it as the part of grammar concerned with words’ origins and true signification.
etymology / etymology / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and scienceswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
The PAPER-OFFICE entry in John Harris’s Lexicon technicum includes Letters of Intelligence among official papers communicated to the King’s Council.
intelligence / intelligence / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and scienceswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Ancient Greek literary record
λέγω / logic / Archaic Greek
Logeion: λέγωreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Ancient Greek literary and documentary record
λόγος / logic / Archaic / Classical Greek
Logeion: λόγοςreporting source / OPEN RECORD ↗06
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