fiend
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /fiːnd/
rhymes: -iːnd
ipa: /fɛnd/
Forms: form: fiends
form: fend
Etymology: From Middle English fend, feend (“enemy; demon”), from Old English fēond (“enemy”), Proto-West Germanic *fijand, from Proto-Germanic *fijandz.
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Fäind (“enemy, fiend, foe”), Cimbrian faint (“enemy, fiend”), Dutch vijand (“enemy”), German Feind (“enemy, fiend, foe”), Vilamovian faeind, fajnd (“enemy”), Yiddish פֿײַנד (faynd), פֿײַנט (faynt, “enemy”), Danish fjende (“adversary, enemy, foe”), Icelandic fjandi (“enemy; fiend, demon, devil”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish fiende (“enemy”), Old Norse fjándi (“enemy; devil”), Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌾𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (fijands, “enemy, foe”). The Old Norse and Gothic terms are present participles of the corresponding verbs fjá/𐍆𐌹𐌾𐌰𐌽 (fijan, “to hate”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate”) (compare Sanskrit पीयति (pī́yati, “(he) reviles”)).
Senses: examples: text: what God or Feend, or ſpirit of the earth,
Or Monſter turned to a manly ſhape,
Or of what mould or mettel he be made, […]
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vi:
text: Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!
ref: 1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC:
synonyms: monster
glosses: A devil or demon; a malignant or diabolical being; an evil spirit.
synonyms: monster
glosses: A very evil person.
examples: text: We waited for our fiend to arrive.
glosses: An enemy; a foe.
examples: text: At the confirmation ceremony the bishop would lay his hands on the child and tie around its forehead a linen band […]. This was believed to strengthen him against the assaults of the fiend […]
ref: 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 35:
qualifier: religious
glosses: The enemy of mankind, specifically, the Devil; Satan.
examples: text: dope fiend
text: He's been a jazz fiend since his teenage years.
text: Now the sign of the Lamb is a modern daub, not that which hung like a "banner on the outward wall," when the celebrated "cigar-fiend" used to haunt the hostelrie consuming incredible quantities of the best Havanas.
ref: 1837 May 27, “The Poor Gentleman”, in New-York Mirror, volume 14, number 48, New York City: [G.P. Morris], →OCLC, page 377:
text: You could hear him putting away his crumby toilet articles and all, and opening the window. He was a fresh-air fiend.
ref: 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 64:
glosses: An addict or fanatic.
Derived terms: archfiend
dope fiend
drug fiend
fienddom
fiendess
fiendette
fiendful
fiendhood
fiendish
fiendism
fiendkin
fiendlike
fiendling
fiendly
fiendness
fiendom
fiendship
fiendy
lubber fiend
spice fiend