feud

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“
If nothing else, Earnhardt and Busch agree that their feud is a media creation.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A bitter, often prolonged quarrel or state of enmity, especially such a state of hostilities between two families or clans.
  2. intransitive verb To carry on or perpetuate a bitter quarrel or state of enmity.
  3. noun See fee.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • To Fielding's robust and masculine genius, says Mr Austin Dobson, “the strange conjunction of purity and precaution in Richardson's heroine was a thing unnatural and a theme for inextinguishable Homeric laughter.” To Thackeray's sympathetic imagination the feud was the inevitable outcome of the difference between the two men. —  Henry Fielding: A Memoir
  • RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I almost went with Edge and a strong case can be made for him. edge vs undertaker WM24 match of yr but the feud is the same bro —  Blog updates
  • The result of the feud was the disappearance of the guy, who is believed to be living in a hole, next to hornswoggle, under the ring. —  Blog updates
  • Jeff Jarrett vs. Kurt Angle: This feud has been the main storyline of TNA wrestling for the past three months. —  PWTorch.com
  • Watching the latest, hilarious stage in the Jimmy Kimmel-Matt Damon "feud" -- which racked up —  ZDNET.com.au
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Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Alteration (probably influenced by feud2) of Middle English fede, from Old French faide, of Germanic origin.
  2. Medieval Latin feudum, of Germanic origin; see peku- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. In form and pronunciation now assimilated to feud, q. v.; from Middle English fede, feide, properly *feithe, from Anglo-Saxon fæhth, nominative rarely fæhthu, fæhtho = OFries. feithe = Dutch veete = Old High German fēhida, Middle High German vēhede, vēde, German fehde = Icelandic Swedish fegd, formerly fejd = Danish feide, enmity, hostility, feud, war (whence Middle Latin faida, feida, Old French faide, fede, feide, foide); not in Gothic (Moesogothic) (where *faihitha would be expected: Gothic (Moesogothic) fijathwa, hatred, is only remotely connected); an abstract noun in -th, from Anglo-Saxon fāh, hostile, outlawed, guilty, fāhman, a foeman, in Middle English a noun, fo, foo, modern English foe: see foe and fiend. Feud is thus the abstract noun of foe (which was orig. an adjective).
  2. from Middle Latin feudum, also written feodum (whence the less proper English spelling feod, q. v.), a feud, fief, fee; from Old High German fihu, fehu, cattle (also prob., as in Anglo-Saxon feoh, etc., property in general): see fee. Hence (from Old High German) Old French fieu, fief, feu, fied (whence Middle English fee, English fee, and, from fief, later English fief and fe ff, feoff) = Provencal feu = it. fio, fee, fief: see fee, fief, feoff. The origin of the d in Middle Latin feudum is uncertain; as the word was artificial, the d was perhaps a mere insertion to avoid the collocation euu; the reg. Middle Latin reflex of the Old High German, etc., would be feuum, which actually occurs in the Doomsday Book. Feud and its derivatives are less properly spelled feod, etc.
 

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