enmity

English

Alternative forms

Variant spellings

(tetrasyllabic)

• (14 ^th-century):
  • enemyte
  • enemytee
  • ennemite
  • ennemyte
• (15 ^th-century):
  • enemyte
  • enemytee
  • ennemite
  • ennemyte
  • enymyte

• (16 ^th-century):
  • enemitie
  • enemyte
  • enemytee
  • enimitie
  • enimity
  • ennemite
  • ennemyte
  • ennimitie
  • inimity

(trisyllabic)

• (14 ^th-century):
  • enmite
  • enmitye
  • enmyte
  • enmytee
• (15 ^th-century):
  • enmyte
  • enmytee

• (16 ^th-century):
  • enmity
  • enmyte
  • enmytee
• (17 ^th-century–present):
  • enmity

Etymology

From Old French enemisté, ennemistié, from Late Latin, Vulgar Latin *inimīcitās, *inimīcitātem, from Latin inimīcus (“enemy”); cognates: French inimitié, Portuguese inimizade, Spanish enemistad.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛn.mɪ.tɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛn.mɪ.tiː/, /ˈɛm.nɪ.tiː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

enmity (countable and uncountable, plural enmities)

1. The quality of being an enemy; hostile or unfriendly disposition.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 242e.

     Some later Muses from Ionia and Sicily reckoned it safest to weave together both versions and say that that which is is both many and one, held together by both enmity and amity.

2. A state or feeling of opposition, hostility, hatred or animosity.
   • 1945 May, George Orwell, chapter 1, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     I merely repeat, remember always your duty of enmity towards Man and all his ways.

Quotations

• 1611, Bible (King James Version), Genesis 3:15:

  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Synonyms

• enemyship, hostility, enemyhood, antagonism, animosity, rancor, antipathy, animus, foeship

Antonyms

• amity

Translations

hostile or unfriendly disposition

• Albanian: armiqësi (sq)
• Arabic: عَدَاوَةٌ‏‎ f (ʿadāwatun)
• Bulgarian: вражда (bg) f (vražda), враждебност (bg) f (vraždebnost)
• Catalan: enemistat f
• Dutch: vijandschap (nl), animositeit (nl) m
• French: inimitié (fr) f
• German: Feindschaft (de) f
• Greek: εχθρότητα (el) f (echthrótita), έχθρα (el) f (échthra), μύνις f (mýnis)
• Italian: inimicizia (it) f, ostilità (it) f
• Japanese: 敵意 (ja) (tekii), 敵対 (ja) (tekitai)
• Latin: inimicitia f
• Maori: ito, pukuriri
• Norman: enn'mité f

• Old English: fǣhþ f
• Persian: دشمنی‏‎ (fa) (došmani)
• Polish: wrogość (pl) f, nieprzyjaźń f
• Portuguese: inimizade (pt) f
• Romanian: dușmănie (ro) f, inimiciție (ro) f
• Russian: вражде́бность (ru) f (vraždébnostʹ), вражда́ (ru) f (vraždá), неприя́знь (ru) f (neprijáznʹ)
• Spanish: enemistad (es) f
• Swahili: uadui
• Swedish: fiendskap (sv) c
• Telugu: శత్రుత్వము (te) (śatrutvamu)
• Tok Pisin: pasin birua
• Turkish: yağılık (tr), husumet (tr), adavet (tr) (archaic), düşmanlık (tr), hasımlık (tr)

References

• enmity in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• enmity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Notes: