It's the Word of the Day podcast for September 20th.

Today's word is enmity, spelled E-N-M-I-T-Y.

Enmity is a noun.

It's a formal word that refers to a very deep, unfriendly feeling, such as hatred or ill-will, that is often felt mutually.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the Chicago Tribune. Paul Monreal is a fourth great-grandchild of Catherine and Patrick O'Leary, who endured the enmity of Chicagoans after they were wrongfully accused of starting

the Great Chicago Fire, which, legend said, was started by a jittery dairy cow named Daisy.

The resemblance between the words enmity and enemy is no coincidence.

They both come from the Anglo-French word enmi, which literally translates to

enemy. And when you feel enmity for a particular person, that is, deep-seated dislike or ill-will,

enemy may very well be an apt descriptor for them. While it is possible to feel enmity for someone who does not

share or return one's animosity, the word enmity is typically used for mutual hatred or antagonism

between people or groups or factions. As when Edgar Allan Poe wrote of the families of Berlifitzing and Metzengerstein in his first published short story with these words,

Never before were two houses so illustrious, mutually embittered by hostility, so deadly.

The origin of this enmity seems to be found in the words of an ancient prophecy, a lofty name

shall have a fearful fall. With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sakalowsky.

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