Word of the Day

Sunday, February 16, 2003

enmity

\EN-mih-tee\ , noun;

Hatred; ill will; hostile or unfriendly disposition.

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Quotes:

I learned, of course, . . . that the flames of infatuation can quickly become ashes of enmity and contempt.

-- Kathleen Norris, The Virgin of Bennington

In the course of our conversation he reverted to yesterday's aphorism about it being our joint task to guide our two peoples out of their old enmity into new amity.

-- Charles Kessler (editor and translator), Berlin in Lights

There were also always those I rubbed the wrong way (sometimes to the point of outright enmity) by being too brash or too arrogant or too ambitious or too precociously successful -- or by not being inhibited or tactful enough to refrain from writing about my career.

-- Norman Podhoretz, Ex-Friends

Origin:

Enmity derives from Old French enemistié, ultimately from Latin inimicus, "an enemy," from in-, "not" + amicus, "friend," from amare, "to love."