different between barbarian vs fiend

English

Etymology

From Middle English barbarian, borrowed from Medieval Latin barbarinus (“Berber, pagan, Saracen, barbarian”), from Latin barbaria (“foreign country”), from barbarus (“foreigner, savage”), from Ancient Greek ???????? (bárbaros, “foreign, non-Greek, strange”), possibly onomatopoeic (mimicking foreign languages, akin to English blah blah). Cognate to Sanskrit ????? (barbara, “barbarian, non-Aryan, stammering, blockhead”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /b??(?).?b??.?i.?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /b??.?b???.i.?n/
• Rhymes: -???i?n

Adjective

barbarian (not comparable)

1. Relating to people, countries or customs perceived as uncivilized or inferior.

Synonyms

• barbaric
• barbarous

Translations

Noun

barbarian (plural barbarians)

1. (historical) A non-Greek or a non-Roman.
2. An uncivilized or uncultured person, originally compared to the hellenistic Greco-Roman civilisation; often associated with fighting or other such shows of strength.
3. (derogatory) Someone from a developing country or backward culture.
4. A warrior, clad in fur or leather, associated with sword and sorcery stories.
5. (derogatory) A person destitute of culture; a Philistine.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of M. Arnold to this entry?)
6. A cruel, savage, brutal person; one without pity or humanity.
   • 1712, Ambrose Philips, The Distrest Mother

     Thou fell barbarian.

7. (derogatory) A foreigner, especially with barbaric qualities as in the above definitions.

Synonyms

• (foreigner): alien, outlander, peregrine; see also Thesaurus:foreigner

Translations

Related terms

• barbarism
• barbarity
• barbarize
• rhubarb
• outlander

English

Alternative forms

• fend

Etymology

From Middle English feend, f?nd, fiend, feond, viend, veond (“enemy; demon”), from Old English f?ond (“enemy”), from Proto-Germanic *fijandz.

Compare Old Norse fjándi (Icelandic fjandi, Danish fjende, Norwegian fiende, Swedish fiende, West Frisian fijân, Low German Feend, Fiend, Dutch vijand, German Feind, Gothic ???????????????????????????? (fijands)), with all of them meaning foe. The Old Norse and Gothic terms are present participles of the corresponding verbs fjá/???????????????????? (fijan, “to hate”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh?- (“to hate”) (compare Sanskrit ????? (p??yati, “(he) reviles”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi?nd/
• Rhymes: -i?nd

Noun

fiend (plural fiends)

1. A devil or demon; a malignant or diabolical being; an evil spirit.

   Synonym: monster
2. A very evil person.

   Synonym: monster

3. (obsolete) An enemy; a foe.

4. (religious, archaic) The enemy of mankind, specifically, the Devil; Satan.
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 35:

     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 […]

5. (informal) An addict or fanatic.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

fiend (third-person singular simple present fiends, present participle fiending, simple past and past participle fiended)

1. (slang, intransitive) To yearn; to be desperate (for something).
   • 1999, Macy Gray, Jeremy Ruzumna, Jinsoo Lim, David Wilder, I Try (song)

     I play it off, but I'm dreaming of you / And I'll try to keep my cool, but I'm fiendin'

   • 2011, Emma J. Stephens, For a Dancer: The Memoir

     I am back in San Francisco at the Clift Hotel, fiending for my fix.

Translations

Anagrams

• endif, finde, fined, indef, indef.

Middle English

Noun

fiend (plural fiendes)

1. Alternative form of feend