fiend

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English fend, feend (“enemy; demon”), from Old English fēond (“enemy”), Proto-West Germanic *fijand, from Proto-Germanic *fijandz.

Cognates

Cognate with Scots fient (“fiend”), 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 𐍆𐌹𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (fiands), 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”)).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /fiːnd/
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Rhymes: -iːnd
  • IPA(key): (obsolete) /fɛnd/[1][2]

Noun

fiend (plural fiends)

  1. A devil or demon; a malignant or diabolical being; an evil spirit.
    Synonym: monster
  2. A very evil person.
    Synonym: monster
  3. (obsolete) An enemy; a foe.
    We waited for our fiend to arrive.
  4. (religious, archaic, sometimes capitalised) The enemy of mankind, specifically, the Devil; Satan.
    • 1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 119:
      He proffered a pact to Satan, calling upon the Fiend and working himself into a frenzy - but his infernal majesty failed to respond.
    • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 35:
      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 […]
  5. (informal) An addict or fanatic.
    dope fiend
    He's been a jazz fiend since his teenage years.
    • 1837 May 27, “The Poor Gentleman”, in New-York Mirror‎[4], volume 14, number 48, New York City: [G.P. Morris], →OCLC, page 377:
      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.
    • 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 64:
      You could hear him putting away his crumby toilet articles and all, and opening the window. He was a fresh-air fiend.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

fiend (third-person singular simple present fiends, present participle fiending, simple past and past participle fiended)

  1. (slang, intransitive) To yearn; to be desperate. [(often) with for ‘something, especially drugs’]
    Synonyms: feen, jones
    • 1999, Macy Gray, Jeremy Ruzumna, Jinsoo Lim, David Wilder, “I Try”:
      I play it off, but I'm dreaming of you / And I'll try to keep my cool, but I'm fiendin'
    • 2011, Emma J. Stephens, For a Dancer: The Memoir:
      I am back in San Francisco at the Clift Hotel, fiending for my fix.

Translations

References

  1. ^ Hurd, Seth P. (1847), “Fiend”, in “False Pronunciation”, in A Grammatical Corrector; or, A Vocabulary of the Common Errors of Speech‎[1], Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co, →OCLC, page 82.
  2. ^ Krapp, George Philip (1925), The English Language in America‎[2], volume II, New York: Century Co. for the Modern Language Association of America, →OCLC, page 103.

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

fiend

  1. alternative form of fend

Old English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /fi͜yːnd/

Etymology 1

Inflected form.

Alternative forms

Noun

fīend

  1. inflection of fēond:
    1. nominative/accusative plural
    2. dative singular

Etymology 2

Noun

fīend m

  1. alternative form of fēond

Declension

Strong a-stem:

singular plural
nominative fīend fīendas
accusative fīend fīendas
genitive fīendes fīenda
dative fīende fīendum
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