Wiktionary

duel

See also: -dül and dual

English

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Etymology

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From Medieval Latin duellum (“fight between two men, duel”), itself from Old Latin duellum (“war, fight”), which survived in Classical Latin as a rare byform of bellum and was later reinterpreted as “duel” by unetymological association with duo (“two”).[1][2]

May have entered English through Middle French duel. (Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation

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Noun

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duel (plural duels)

  1. Arranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor.
    • 1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “In Which I Show Myself to Be a Man of Spirit”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1856, →OCLC, page 36:
      I have often thought since, how different my fate might have been, had I not fallen in love with Nora at that early age; and had I not flung the wine in Quin’s face, and so brought on the duel.
    • 1960 March, N. Caplan, “The Railway Member of Parliament”, in Railway Magazine, page 209:
      Of course, not all the Railway Members were men of such talent. One member was "chiefly eminent as a whist player," and another was known for his duel with a fellow M.P. fought at Wormwood Scrubs in 1840.
    • 2004 July 5, Jason George, “A Duel Evokes Dueling Emotions Over a Unique Place in History”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 5 November 2018:
      It has been 200 years, minus a few days, since Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel here. Weehawken and the duel have been tied together in an often-uncomfortable knot ever since.
    • 2017 June 14, Julian Zelizer, “The challenge of protecting members of Congress”, in CNN‎[2], archived from the original on 14 June 2017:
      After Rep. William Graves of Kentucky killed Rep. John Cilley of Maine in a duel in 1838, Congress imposed a prohibition on pistol duels in the District of Columbia.
  2. Historically, the wager of battle (judicial combat).
  3. (by extension) Any battle or struggle between two contending persons, forces, groups, or ideas.
    a sniper duel
    • 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 25:33 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!‎[3], archived from the original on 20 July 2022:
      But it leaves them with a few destroyers, the American destroyer force is falling back, and then you have the two cruiser lines with their respective battleships coming in for the big duel.
    • 2021 May 1, John Naughton, “Apple comes out swinging in the duel of the data titans”, in The Guardian‎[4], archived from the original on 21 October 2021:
      Apple comes out swinging in the duel of the data titans [title]

Translations

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Verb

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duel (third-person singular simple present duels, present participle (US) dueling or (UK) duelling, simple past and past participle (US) dueled or (UK) duelled)

  1. To engage in a battle.
    The two dogs were duelling for the bone.
    • 2019 February 19, “Lightsaber duelling registered as official sport in France”, in The Guardian‎[5], archived from the original on 8 November 2020:
      The country’s fencing federation has officially recognised lightsaber duelling as a competitive sport, granting the weapon from George Lucas’s space saga the same status as the foil, epee and sabre, the traditional blades used at the Olympics.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “duel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
  2. ^ Wolfgang Pfeifer, editor (1993), “Duell”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen (in German), 2nd edition, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN

Anagrams

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Italian duello, from Medieval Latin duellum (“fight between two men”), under influence from Latin duo.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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duel m (plural duels)

  1. duel

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Danish

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Danish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia da

Etymology

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From Middle French duel, from Latin duellum (“war”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /duɛl/, [d̥uˈɛlˀ]

Noun

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duel c (singular definite duellen, plural indefinite dueller)

  1. duel

Inflection

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Declension of duel
common
gender 		singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative duel duellen dueller duellerne
genitive duels duellens duellers duellernes

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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References

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Dutch

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Middle French duel, from Latin duellum (“duel; war”), archaic form of bellum (“war”). In Mediaeval Latin the meaning shifted from “war” to “duel” because of folk etymology associating it with duo (“two”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /dyˈ(ʋ)ɛl/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: du‧el
  • Rhymes: -ɛl

Noun

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duel n (plural duels, diminutive duelletje n)

  1. a duel

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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French

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French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

Etymology

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    Borrowed from Latin duālis.

    Pronunciation

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    Adjective

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    duel (feminine duelle, masculine plural duels, feminine plural duelles)

    1. dual (having two components)
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    Noun

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    duel m (plural duels)

    1. duel (battle)
    2. (grammar) dual

    Further reading

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    Old French

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    FWOTD – 9 April 2014

    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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    Probably from Late Latin dolus, from Latin dolor (“pain”), or from Vulgar Latin *dolium, from Latin cordolium (“sorrow of the heart”), from dolor.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    duel oblique singular, m (oblique plural dueus or duex or duels, nominative singular dueus or duex or duels, nominative plural duel)

    1. sadness; grief; sorrow

    Descendants

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    • French: deuil
    • Norman: deu

    Romanian

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    Etymology

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    Borrowed from French duel, from Latin duellum.

    Noun

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    duel n (plural dueluri)

    1. duel

    Declension

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    singular plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative-accusative duel duelul dueluri duelurile
    genitive-dative duel duelului dueluri duelurilor
    vocative duelule duelurilor
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