Most hateful, as dearest foe. The word dear, meaning “beloved,” is the Saxon deor (dear, rare); but dear, “hateful,” is the Anglo-Saxon derian (to hurt), Scotch dere (to annoy).
“Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven,
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatie.”
1
Shakespeare: Hamlet, i. 2.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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