duel

See also: -dül and dual

English

Etymology

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”).

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation)
  • (yod-coalescence) IPA^(key): /ˈˈd͡ʒuːəl/
  • (non-yod-coalescence) IPA^(key): /ˈdjuːəl/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: d(y)o͞oʹəl, IPA^(key): /ˈdul/, /ˈd(j)u.əl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophones: dual, jewel (yod-coalescence)
• Hyphenation: du‧el
• Rhymes: -uːəl, -ʊəl

Noun

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

combat between two persons

• Arabic: مُبَارَزَة f (mubāraza)
• Armenian: մենամարտ (hy) (menamart)
• Belarusian: дуэ́ль f (duélʹ)
• Bulgarian: дуе́л (bg) m (duél), двубо́й (bg) m (dvubój)
• Catalan: duel m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 決鬥 / 决斗 (zh) (juédòu)

• Czech: duel (cs) m, souboj (cs) m
• Danish: duel (da) c, tvekamp c
• Dutch: duel (nl) n, tweegevecht (nl) n
• Esperanto: duelo (eo)
• Finnish: kaksintaistelu (fi)
• French: duel (fr) m
• Galician: duelo (gl) m
• Georgian: დუელი (dueli)
• German: Duell (de) n, Zweikampf (de) m
• Greek: μονομαχία (el) f (monomachía)

  Ancient Greek: μονομαχία f (monomakhía)

• Hebrew: דּוּ קְרָב m (dú qrav)
• Hindi: द्वंद्वयुद्ध (hi) m (dvandvayuddh)
• Hungarian: párbaj (hu)
• Icelandic: einvígi n
• Irish: comhrac aonair m
• Italian: duello (it) m, singolar tenzone f
• Japanese: 決闘 (ja) (けっとう, kettō), デュエル (ja) (dyueru)
• Kazakh: жекпе-жек (jekpe-jek)
• Korean: 결투(決鬪) (ko) (gyeoltu)
• Latin: duellum (Medieval)
• Macedonian: двобој (dvoboj)
• Norwegian: tvekamp (no) m

  Bokmål: duell (no) m

  Nynorsk: duell m

• Old English: ānwīġ n
• Persian: دوئل (fa) (du'el)
• Polish: pojedynek (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: duelo (pt) m
• Russian: дуэ́ль (ru) f (duélʹ), поеди́нок (ru) m (pojedínok), двобой m (dvoboj) (non-standard)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: дво̀бој m

  Latin: dvòboj (sh) m

• Slovak: duel m, súboj (sk) m
• Slovene: dvoboj (sl) m
• Spanish: duelo (es) m
• Swedish: duell (sv) c, tvekamp (sv) c
• Tagalog: akip
• Turkish: düello (tr)
• Ukrainian: дуе́ль f (duélʹ), двобі́й m (dvobíj)
• Vietnamese: quyết đấu (vi), đấu tay đôi
• Welsh: gornest (cy) f

struggle between two parties

• Belarusian: паяды́нак m (pajadýnak)
• Bulgarian: двубо́й (bg) m (dvubój)
• Catalan: duel m
• Czech: souboj (cs) m
• Danish: duel (da) c, tvekamp c
• Dutch: duel (nl) n, tweekamp (nl)
• Esperanto: duelo (eo)
• Finnish: kaksinkamppailu
• French: duel (fr) m
• German: Duell (de) n, Zweikampf (de) m
• Greek: διαμάχη (el) f (diamáchi)
• Hindi: द्वंद्वयुद्ध (hi) m (dvandvayuddh)
• Hungarian: párbaj (hu)
• Italian: duello (it) m
• Macedonian: двобој m (dvoboj)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: duell (no) m

  Nynorsk: duell m

• Polish: pojedynek (pl) m
• Portuguese: duelo (pt) m
• Russian: поеди́нок (ru) m (pojedínok), единобо́рство (ru) n (jedinobórstvo)
• Slovak: súboj (sk) m
• Slovene: dvoboj (sl) m
• Spanish: duelo (es) m
• Swedish: duell (sv) c, tvekamp (sv) c
• Tagalog: akip
• Turkish: düello (tr)
• Ukrainian: поєди́нок m (pojedýnok)

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

• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} duelo (eo)
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} duello

Verb

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

• dueler
• duelism
• duelist
• duelsome
• outduel
• truel

Related terms

• duello
• dual

Translations

engage in a duel

• Armenian: մենամարտել (hy) (menamartel)
• Bulgarian: дуелирам се (dueliram se)
• Catalan: batre's en duel
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 決鬥 / 决斗 (zh) (juédòu)

• Danish: duellere
• Dutch: duelleren (nl)
• Esperanto: dueli
• Finnish: kaksintaistella
• French: croiser le fer (fr)
• German: duellieren (de)
• Hungarian: párbajozik (hu)
• Interlingua: duellar
• Italian: duellare (it)
• Māori: tuku mātātahi
• Polish: pojedynkować impf, potykać (pl) impf
• Portuguese: duelar
• Russian: дра́ться на дуэ́ли impf (drátʹsja na duéli)
• Slovene: dvobojevati se
• Spanish: combatir en duelo, batirse (es), duelear
• Swedish: duellera (sv)
• Vietnamese: quyết đấu (vi)

Anagrams

• ULed, leud, lude, lued

Catalan

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [duˈɛl]

Noun

duel m (plural duels)

1. duel

Derived terms

• duelista

Further reading

• “duel”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “duel”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “duel” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “duel”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Danish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /duɛl/, [d̥uˈɛlˀ]

Noun

duel c (singular definite duellen, plural indefinite dueller)

1. duel

Inflection

Declension of duel

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

Synonyms

• tvekamp

Derived terms

• duellere

References

• “duel” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “duel” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

Dutch

Alternative forms

• duwel (obsolete)

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): /dyˈ(ʋ)ɛl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: du‧el
• Rhymes: -ɛl

Noun

duel n (plural duels, diminutive duelletje n)

1. a duel

Synonyms

• tweegevecht
• tweekamp

Derived terms

• duelleren
• duellist

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin duālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɥɛl/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɥɛl

Adjective

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

1. dual (having two components)

Related terms

• dualité

Noun

duel m (plural duels)

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

Further reading

• “duel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Old French

FWOTD – 9 April 2014

Alternative forms

• dol

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /du͡ɛl/

Noun

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
   • c. 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     Son plor et son duel demenant

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• French: deuil
• Norman: deu

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French duel, from Latin duellum.

Noun

duel n (plural dueluri)

1. duel

Declension

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