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”)).
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A devil or demon; a malignant or diabolical being; an evil spirit.
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, […]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:
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.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 315:
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Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC:
Archaic, Capitalized, Sometimes The enemy of mankind, specifically, the Devil; Satan.
He proffered a pact to Satan, calling upon the Fiend and working himself into a frenzy - but his infernal majesty failed to respond.1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 119:
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 […]1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 35:
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.1837 May 27, “The Poor Gentleman”, in New-York Mirror, volume 14, number 48, New York City: [G.P. Morris], →OCLC, page 377:
You could hear him putting away his crumby toilet articles and all, and opening the window. He was a fresh-air fiend.1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 64:
I play it off, but I'm dreaming of you / And I'll try to keep my cool, but I'm fiendin'1999, Macy Gray, Jeremy Ruzumna, Jinsoo Lim, David Wilder, “I Try”:
I am back in San Francisco at the Clift Hotel, fiending for my fix.2011, Emma J. Stephens, For a Dancer: The Memoir: