duel

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdjuːəl/
• (General American) enPR: d(y)o͞oʹəl, IPA^(key): /ˈd(j)uəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Homophones: dual, jewel (with yod coalescence)
• Rhymes: -uːəl, -ʊəl
• Hyphenation: du‧el

Noun

duel (plural duels)

1. Arranged, regular combat between two private persons, often over a matter of honor.
   • 1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] 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^[1], →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!‎^[2], 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^[3]:

     Apple comes out swinging in the duel of the data titans [title]

Translations

combat between two persons

• Arabic: مُبَارَزَة f (mubāraza)
• Armenian: մենամարտ (hy) (menamart)
• Belarusian: дуэ́ль f (duélʹ)
• Bulgarian: дуе́л (bg) m (duél), двубо́й (bg) m (dvubój)
• Catalan: duel m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 決鬥／决斗 (zh) (juédòu)

• Czech: duel (cs) m, souboj (cs) m
• Danish: duel (da) c, tvekamp c
• Dutch: duel (nl) n, tweegevecht (nl) n
• Esperanto: duelo (eo)
• Finnish: kaksintaistelu (fi)
• French: duel (fr) m
• Galician: duelo (gl) m
• Georgian: დუელი (dueli)
• German: Duell (de) n, Zweikampf (de) m
• Greek: μονομαχία (el) f (monomachía)

  Ancient: μονομαχία f (monomakhía)

• Hindi: द्वंद्वयुद्ध (hi) m (dvandvayuddh)
• Hungarian: párbaj (hu)
• Icelandic: einvígi n
• Italian: duello (it) m, singolar tenzone f
• Japanese: 決闘 (ja) (けっとう, kettō), デュエル (ja) (dyueru)
• Korean: 결투(決鬪) (ko) (gyeoltu)
• Macedonian: двобој (dvoboj)
• Norwegian: tvekamp (no) m

  Bokmål: duell (no) m

  Nynorsk: duell m

• Old English: ānwīġ n
• Persian: دوئل (fa) (du'el)
• Polish: pojedynek (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: duelo (pt) m
• Russian: дуэ́ль (ru) f (duélʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: дво̀бој m

  Roman: dvòboj (sh) m

• Slovak: duel m, súboj m
• Slovene: dvoboj (sl) m
• Spanish: duelo (es) m
• Swedish: duell (sv) c, tvekamp (sv) c
• Tagalog: akip
• Turkish: düello (tr)
• Ukrainian: дуе́ль f (duélʹ), двобі́й m (dvobíj)
• Vietnamese: quyết đấu (vi), đấu tay đôi
• Welsh: gornest (cy) f

struggle between two parties

• Belarusian: паяды́нак m (pajadýnak)
• Bulgarian: двубо́й (bg) m (dvubój)
• Catalan: duel m
• Czech: souboj (cs) m
• Danish: duel (da) c, tvekamp c
• Dutch: duel (nl) n, tweekamp (nl)
• Esperanto: duelo (eo)
• Finnish: kaksinkamppailu
• French: duel (fr) m
• German: Duell (de) n, Zweikampf (de) m
• Greek: διαμάχη (el) f (diamáchi)
• Hindi: द्वंद्वयुद्ध (hi) m (dvandvayuddh)
• Hungarian: párbaj (hu)
• Italian: duello (it) m
• Macedonian: двобој m (dvoboj)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: duell (no) m

  Nynorsk: duell m

• Polish: pojedynek (pl) m
• Portuguese: duelo (pt) m
• Russian: поеди́нок (ru) m (pojedínok), единобо́рство (ru) n (jedinobórstvo)
• Slovak: súboj m
• Slovene: dvoboj (sl) m
• Spanish: duelo (es) m
• Swedish: duell (sv) c, tvekamp (sv) c
• Tagalog: akip
• Turkish: düello (tr)
• Ukrainian: поєди́нок m (pojedýnok)

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

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} duelo (eo)
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} duello

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^[4]:

     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

• duelist
• truel

Related terms

• duello
• dual

Translations

engage in a duel

• Armenian: մենամարտել (hy) (menamartel)
• Bulgarian: дуелирам се (dueliram se)
• Catalan: batre's en duel
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 決鬥／决斗 (zh) (juédòu)

• Danish: duellere
• Dutch: duelleren (nl)
• Esperanto: dueli
• Finnish: kaksintaistella
• French: croiser le fer (fr)
• German: duellieren (de)
• Hungarian: párbajozik (hu)
• Interlingua: duellar
• Italian: duellare
• Maori: tuku mātātahi
• Polish: pojedynkować impf, potykać (pl) impf
• Portuguese: duelar
• Russian: дра́ться на дуэ́ли impf (drátʹsja na duéli)
• Slovene: dvobojevati se
• Swedish: duellera (sv)
• Vietnamese: quyết đấu (vi)

Anagrams

• ULed, leud, lude, lued

Catalan

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian) [duˈɛl]

Noun

duel m (plural duels)

1. duel

Derived terms

• duelista

Further reading

• “duel” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “duel”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “duel” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “duel” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Danish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /duɛl/, [d̥uˈɛlˀ]

Noun

duel c (singular definite duellen, plural indefinite dueller)

1. duel

Inflection

Declension of duel

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	duel	duellen	dueller	duellerne
genitive	duels	duellens	duellers	duellernes

Synonyms

• tvekamp

Derived terms

• duellere

Further reading

• duel on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Dutch

Alternative forms

• duwel (obsolete)

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

• tweegevecht
• tweekamp

Derived terms

• duelleren
• duellist

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin duālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɥɛl/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɥɛl

Adjective

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

1. dual (having two components)

Related terms

• dualité

Noun

duel m (plural duels)

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

Further reading

• “duel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old French

FWOTD – 9 April 2014

Alternative forms

• dol

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

• IPA^(key): /du͡ɛl/

Noun

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

1. sadness; grief; sorrow
   • c. 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     Son plor et son duel demenant

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• French: deuil
• Norman: deu

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French duel, from Latin duellum.

Noun

duel n (plural dueluri)

1. duel

Declension

Declension of duel

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) duel	duelul	(niște) dueluri	duelurile
genitive/dative	(unui) duel	duelului	(unor) dueluri	duelurilor
vocative	duelule		duelurilor