Wiktionary

fiend

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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Noun

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fiend (plural fiends)

  1. A devil or demon; a malignant or diabolical being; an evil spirit.
    Synonym: monster
    • 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:
      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, […]
    • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 315:
      Many hold too that he was acquainted with forbidden arts, and used to carry on an intercourse with the fiends and old women that raised storms, and such like.
    • 1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review‎[3], volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC:
      Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!
  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

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Translations

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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

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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

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References

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  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

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Middle English

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Noun

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fiend

  1. alternative form of fend

Old English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Inflected form.

Alternative forms

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Noun

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fīend

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

Etymology 2

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Noun

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fīend m

  1. alternative form of fēond
Declension
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Strong a-stem:

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