敵対

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 敵対 is a noun and irregular intransitive verb read てきたい, meaning hostility or standing opposed as enemies.
• Basic usage: Use 長く敵対していた for a long-standing hostile relationship and 相手を敵対視する for regarding someone as an enemy.
  • 長く敵対していた二つの村が協力を始めました。 describes two villages that had long been hostile beginning to cooperate; 意見が違っても、相手を敵対視する必要はありません。 says that differing opinions do not make it necessary to treat the other person as an enemy.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• 敵対していた
  • ていた presents the villages' hostility as a state continuing from the past.
• 敵対視する
  • Adding 視する means viewing or treating the other party as an enemy.
• 違っても…必要はない
  • ても concedes a difference of opinion while denying that hostility is therefore necessary.