zozo
Member
Hail Friend or Foe?
'Friend' used to mean "loving one", while a 'fiend' was a "hating one". 'Friend' is the fossilised present participle of the ancestor of 'to free', which meant "to love; to like; to free".
Hence Freyja the beautiful Norse goddess of love and sorts...
In my native language, we still use the noun 'Vrijer' (literally 'Free- er' if it also would be an English noun) to refer to the one you make love with but yet not married 'a lover'. 🥰
And in German, it's 'Freier' it can be used in the same context but is slightly overshadowed as it also has some negative connotations to referring to one who's visiting prostitutes.
Depending on where you are in Germany it might not be a good idea to use this word...
Here is a nice diagram of the etymology where it came from, and how it went, changed and stayed over time...
With Thanks to Yoïn who makes these beautiful things...
The 'foe' isn't in the diagram but as you know it means opponent or enemy I suspect it's a cognate from the Old English 'Feogan' that survived but changed into 'Foe'. English adopted the word 'enemy' nowadays and so the word 'Fiend' got some different meanings such as 'Devil or Demon' with the influence of Christian beliefs.
Since we share so much language it can only mean once we've shared so much 'Frijondz' genetics. Who knows how distantly related we actually are? I might just have a very distant cousin running around here at UKAPS without knowing it.
So "Hailijanan" to all British "Frijunden" 😃
'Friend' used to mean "loving one", while a 'fiend' was a "hating one". 'Friend' is the fossilised present participle of the ancestor of 'to free', which meant "to love; to like; to free".
Hence Freyja the beautiful Norse goddess of love and sorts...
In my native language, we still use the noun 'Vrijer' (literally 'Free- er' if it also would be an English noun) to refer to the one you make love with but yet not married 'a lover'. 🥰
And in German, it's 'Freier' it can be used in the same context but is slightly overshadowed as it also has some negative connotations to referring to one who's visiting prostitutes.
Depending on where you are in Germany it might not be a good idea to use this word...Here is a nice diagram of the etymology where it came from, and how it went, changed and stayed over time...
With Thanks to Yoïn who makes these beautiful things...
The 'foe' isn't in the diagram but as you know it means opponent or enemy I suspect it's a cognate from the Old English 'Feogan' that survived but changed into 'Foe'. English adopted the word 'enemy' nowadays and so the word 'Fiend' got some different meanings such as 'Devil or Demon' with the influence of Christian beliefs.
Since we share so much language it can only mean once we've shared so much 'Frijondz' genetics. Who knows how distantly related we actually are? I might just have a very distant cousin running around here at UKAPS without knowing it.
So "Hailijanan" to all British "Frijunden" 😃
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