fiendish
凶悪な
解説 Definition
悪魔のように残忍で邪悪な、または人の悪意を感じさせるほどひどい様子を表します。犯罪・計画・表情などについて、単に怖いだけでなく、残酷さや邪悪さが強くにじむ場合に使われます。
Fiendish means extremely cruel, wicked, or difficult in a way that seems almost evil. It can describe bad behavior, clever but unfair tricks, or problems that are very hard to solve. In everyday use, it often means unusually difficult rather than literally evil.
覚え方のコツ Memory Tip
fiend は「悪魔・鬼のようなやつ」。friend と1文字違いで見た目が近いのに、意味の雰囲気は真逆だとセットで覚えると残りやすいです。そこに -ish が付いて「悪魔っぽい」→ 凶悪な、邪悪な。fiendish crime や fiendish attack のように、悪魔的な残忍さを感じる場面で思い出すと定着します。
Remember that `fiend` means a devil-like or cruel person, and it looks close to `friend`, which makes the contrast easy to remember. Add `-ish` and you get the sense of something devilish or cruel. It can describe violent acts like `fiendish attack`, but also hard things like a `fiendish puzzle`, where the idea is cruelly difficult.
例文
The villain devised a fiendish plan to take over the entire city.
その悪役は街全体を支配する凶悪な計画を企てた。
The puzzle was fiendish in its complexity, taking even experts hours to solve.
そのパズルはその複雑さにおいて極めて手ごわく、専門家でさえ解くのに何時間もかかった。
He had a fiendish grin on his face as he revealed his secret strategy.
彼は秘密の戦略を明かしながら、悪魔のような笑みを浮かべていた。
fiendish の類義語・関連語
fiendish の語源・成り立ち Etymology
fiendish は fiend に -ish が付いた形です。fiend は古英語 feond「敵、悪魔」に由来し、もとは『憎む者』の感覚で、派生語に fiendishly や fiendishness があります。だからこの語は、ただ怖いのでなく『悪魔じみた邪悪さ』を帯びます。
Fiendish comes from fiend with the adjective ending -ish. Fiend comes from Old English feond, which originally meant "enemy" and later took on the sense of an evil spirit or devil. Because of that shift, fiendish developed from the idea of hostility into the stronger sense of something devil-like or cruel.
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