Etymology

feud

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Today it means: A state of long-standing mutual hostility. Full definition →

Northern Middle English fede ← Old French faide ← Proto-West Germanic *faihiþu
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feud · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*peyḱ-“hostile”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*faihiþu“hatred, enmity”
  3. Old French · derived fromfaide
  4. Northern Middle English · inherited fromfede
  5. English todayfeud

Inherited from Northern Middle English fede, feide, from Old French faide, feide, fede, from Proto-West Germanic *faihiþu (“hatred, enmity”) (corresponding to foe + -th), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“hostile”). Cognate to Old English fǣhþ, fǣhþu, fǣhþo (“hostility, enmity, violence, revenge, vendetta”), German Fehde, and Dutch vete (“feud”) (directly inherited from Proto-West Germanic) alongside Danish fejde (“feud, enmity, hostility, war”) and Swedish fejd (“feud, controversy, quarrel, strife”) (borrowed from Middle Low German).

feud · noun2

  1. Medieval Latin · borrowed fromfeudum
  2. English todayfeud

From Medieval Latin feudum. Doublet of fee, fief, and feoff.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*peyḱ- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.