duel

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See also: -dül and dual

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French duel, from Medieval Latin duellum (fight between two men), under influence from Latin duo, from Old Latin duellum (whence Latin bellum (war)).(Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation

Noun

duel (plural duels)

  1. Arranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor.
    • 1844 January–December, W M Thackeray, “In Which I Show Myself to Be a Man of Spirit”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1856, →OCLC, page 36:
      I have often thought since, how different my fate might have been, had I not fallen in love with Nora at that early age; and had I not flung the wine in Quin’s face, and so brought on the duel.
    • 2004 July 5, Jason George, “A Duel Evokes Dueling Emotions Over a Unique Place in History”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
      It has been 200 years, minus a few days, since Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel here. Weehawken and the duel have been tied together in an often-uncomfortable knot ever since.
  2. Historically, the wager of battle (judicial combat).
  3. (by extension) Any battle or struggle between two contending persons, forces, groups, or ideas.
    a sniper duel
    • 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 25:33 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!, archived from the original on 20 July 2022:
      But it leaves them with a few destroyers, the American destroyer force is falling back, and then you have the two cruiser lines with their respective battleships coming in for the big duel.
    • 2021 May 1, John Naughton, “Apple comes out swinging in the duel of the data titans”, in The Guardian:
      Apple comes out swinging in the duel of the data titans

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

duel (third-person singular simple present duels, present participle (US) dueling or (UK) duelling, simple past and past participle (US) dueled or (UK) duelled)

  1. To engage in a battle.
    The two dogs were duelling for the bone.
    • 2019 February 19, “Lightsaber duelling registered as official sport in France”, in The Guardian:
      The country’s fencing federation has officially recognised lightsaber duelling as a competitive sport, granting the weapon from George Lucas’s space saga the same status as the foil, epee and sabre, the traditional blades used at the Olympics.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian duello, from Medieval Latin duellum (fight between two men), under influence from Latin duo.

Pronunciation

Noun

duel m (plural duels)

  1. duel

Derived terms

Further reading

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French duel, from Latin duellum (war).(Can this(+) etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation

Noun

duel c (singular definite duellen, plural indefinite dueller)

  1. duel

Inflection

Synonyms

Derived terms

Further reading

Dutch

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French duel, from Latin duellum (duel; war), archaic form of bellum (war). In Mediaeval Latin the meaning shifted from “war” to “duel” because of folk etymology associating it with duo (two).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dyˈ(ʋ)ɛl/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: du‧el
  • Rhymes: -ɛl

Noun

duel n (plural duels, diminutive duelletje n)

  1. a duel

Synonyms

Derived terms

French

French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin duālis.

Pronunciation

Adjective

duel (feminine duelle, masculine plural duels, feminine plural duelles)

  1. dual (having two components)

Noun

duel m (plural duels)

  1. duel (battle)
  2. (grammar) dual

Further reading

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Probably from Late Latin dolus, from Latin dolor (pain), or from Vulgar Latin *dolium, from Latin cordolium (sorrow of the heart), from dolor.

Pronunciation

Noun

duel oblique singularm (oblique plural dueus or duex or duels, nominative singular dueus or duex or duels, nominative plural duel)

  1. sadness; grief; sorrow

Descendants

  • French: deuil
  • Norman: deu

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French duel, from Latin duellum.

Noun

duel n (plural dueluri)

  1. duel

Declension

singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative duel duelul dueluri duelurile
genitive-dative duel duelului dueluri duelurilor
vocative duelule duelurilor