foe

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fəʊ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /foʊ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophone: faux

From Middle English fo (“foe; hostile”), from earlier ifo (“foe”), from Old English ġefāh (“enemy”), from fāh (“hostile”), from Proto-Germanic *faihaz (compare Old Frisian fāch (“punishable”), Middle High German gevēch (“feuder”)), from Proto-Indo-European *peik/k̑- (“to hate, be hostile”) (compare Middle Irish óech (“enemy, fiend”), Lithuanian pìktas (“evil”).

foe

1. (obsolete) Hostile.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     , vol.1, ch.23:

     he, I say, could passe into Affrike onely with two simple ships or small barkes, to commit himselfe in a strange and foe countrie, to engage his person, under the power of a barbarous King […].

foe (plural foes)

1. An enemy.
   • 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:

     Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.

• (enemy): adversary, enemy, opponent.

• (enemy): ally, friend

• befoe

Acronym of fifty-one ergs., due to the value of a "foe", 1 foe = 10⁵¹ergs; coined by Gerald Brown of Stony Brook University in his work with Hans Bethe.

foe (plural foes)

1. A unit of energy equal to 10⁴⁴ joules.

• bethe (B)

• EOF, OEF

foe

1. Alternative form of fo

foe

1. Obsolete spelling of foi