enmity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English enemite, also enmite,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French enemistié,^[5][6][3][7] also enemite,^[8][7] recorded in Anglo-Norman as enemisté from 1150–70.^[9][10] The French noun comes from Vulgar Latin *inimīcitās,^[4][8][11] which corresponds to Latin inimīcitia (“enmity, hostility”),^[8][11] from inimīcus (“enemy”), the source of enemy.^[5][7][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged instead forms it on enemi, after the pair ami and amistié.^[3] Skeat, too, saw the negative prefix and amity in it,^[12] and Etymonline calls amity basically the same formation without the prefix.^[8] Barnhart notes that the Middle English forms have lost the s, which suggests that it was no longer pronounced in French at the time of borrowing.^[6] Later relatives are French inimitié, Old Occitan enemistat and Spanish enemistad.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ill will, hatred: about 1380, in Wyclif's English works.^[5] Barnhart has enemyte, danger, before 1382, and enmytee, hostility, about 1384, in two versions of the Wycliffe Bible.^[6][2] Other dictionaries date the word earlier: the 13th century in Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Hoad and Collins,^[3][7][13] and 1250–1300 in Dictionary.com.^[14]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word covered both the feeling and its effects: the MED records hostile feeling and rivalry, and also a hostile act, an attack, or even enemies collectively.^[2] The state of being enemies, especially in at enmity or in enmity, is recorded from before 1400,^[5][15] and Trevisa has a further sense, a baneful influence, which lasted until 1608.^[5] Chaucer's Tale of Melibee warns against trusting those with whom one has had werre or enmytee.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave an unfriendly disposition first, then an opposition of interests.^[16] By 1817, in J. Mill, it could be used of things as well as persons.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – ill will, hatred.^[5][15]
• before 1382 – danger, as enemyte.^[6]
• before 1387 – something harmful, a baneful influence (obsolete by 1608).^[5]
• before 1400 – a state of mutual hostility.^[5][15]
• 1641 – to be of someone's enmity, to be at enmity with them.^[5]
• 1817 – transferred use.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Deep-seated hatred or ill will, as between enemies: The feud left lasting enmity between the two villages.^{[4][13][3][5]}
2. A state of mutual hostility, especially in at enmity.^[5][17][4]

Related words

• enemy
• amity
• inimical

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press