enmity

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Italic *n̥- Latin in- Proto-Indo-European *h₃emh₃- Proto-Indo-European *-ti Proto-Indo-European *h₃émh₃ti Proto-Italic *amō Latin amō Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -īcus Latin amīcus Latin inimīcus Vulgar Latin *inimicitas Old French enemistébor. Middle English enemyte English enmity From Middle English enemyte, from Old French enemisté, ennemistié, from Late Latin, Vulgar Latin *inimīcitās, *inimīcitātem, from Latin inimīcus (“enemy”). Cognate with French inimitié, Portuguese inimizade, Spanish enemistad. By surface analysis, en(e)m(y) + -ity.

1. The quality of being an enemy; a hostile or unfriendly disposition.

   “We know from their literature that to our Saxon ancestors waste places of moor and forest and marshes were the resort of a host of supernatural creatures at enmity with mankind.”

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

2. A state or feeling of opposition, hostility, hatred or animosity.

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

   “Maybe only a system that can contain the deep enmity between people who spell the metal aluminum and those who spell it aluminium is up to the task of preserving our fragile democratic institutions.”