ennemi (French)

Where does "ennemi" come from?

The French noun 'ennemi' is inherited from Old French 'enemi' (also attested as 'anemi')[1], which developed from earlier forms such as 'inimi' and 'inimic'[1][3]. These medieval words go back to Latin 'inimīcus'[1][3], a compound formed from the negative prefix 'in-', meaning 'not', and 'amīcus', meaning 'friend'[2]. Ultimately, the Latin noun for 'friend' was derived from the verb 'amō', meaning 'to love'[5], meaning an enemy was literally conceived of as an unfriend.

Open questions

The exact origin of the Latin suffix in 'amīcus' is not completely certain, though it is perhaps derived from a Proto-Indo-European compound suffix combining an instrumental ending with a further element. [5]
The derivation of Proto-Italic '*amō' from the Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to seize' relies on a proposed, but hypothetical, sequence of semantic shifts. [8]

Full etymology tree

ennemi (French), 'enemy'
- inherited enemi (Old French), 'enemy'
  - inherited inimi (Old French), 'alternative form of enemi'
    - borrowed inimicus (Latin), 'enemy, foe (someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else)'
      - prefix in- (Latin), 'un-, non-, not'
      - affix amicus (Latin), 'friendly, well-disposed, amicable'
        suffix amo (Latin), 'to love'
        inherited *amō (Proto-Italic), 'to get hold of'
        derived *h₃emh₃- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to grab, to grasp, to seize, to take hold, tackle, touch'
        affix -icus (Latin), 'used to form nouns from verbs or nouns'

Ancestors

enemi (Old French)
inimicus (Latin)

Descendants and derived words

ennemisme (French)

Sources

Updated September 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris