Etymologically
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fiend

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈfiːnd/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English feend,[2] inherited from Old English fēond (“enemy, foe”),[3][4][5][6] originally the present participle of Old English fēogan (“to hate”).[5][6][2] Cognates include German Feind and Dutch vijand “enemy”, Old Norse fjandi and Gothic fijands.[5][6][2] The word was formed in parallel with friend: both come from Germanic participles meaning “hating” and “loving”.[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An enemy, a foe (Old English, as early as Beowulf).[5][7][6]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old English the word was applied to the Devil, the arch-enemy of mankind, and to evil spirits in general;[7] it became the ordinary word for a demon, while the sense “enemy” died out.[7][6] From about 1220 it was used of a person of superhuman wickedness or cruelty.[7] Its modern informal senses—an addict, a fanatic, someone very skilled at something—grew out of jocular exaggeration.[7][2]

Timeline

  • about 975 – an enemy, a foe (obsolete).[7]
  • before 1000 – the Devil; an evil spirit.[7]
  • about 1220 – a person of superhuman wickedness.[7]
  • 1529 – fiendish.[5]
  • 1621 – jocularly, a person or thing causing mischief.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An evil spirit; a demon; or, with the, the Devil.
  2. A cruel or wicked person.
  3. (informal) An addict.
  4. (informal) A person obsessed with a pursuit or pastime.
  5. (informal) A person particularly skilled at something.

Word family

  • fiendlike
  • archfiend
  • fiendish
  • friend

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press