devious

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēvius (“out of the way, remote, off the main road”),^[2][3][4][5] with the English suffix -ous.^[2][6][5] The Latin adjective is formed from dē (“from, off”) and via (“way, road”),^[2][3][7][8] from Proto-Indo-European *wegh- (“to go, move, transport in a vehicle”),^[3][4] which is also the source of way.^[3] It is closely related to deviate.^[9][5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lying out of the way, off the main road, remote: 1599, in H. Buttes's Dyets Dry Dinner.^[2] Merriam-Webster gives the same year, for the sense of departing from a straight line,^[7] and Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The English word began with the literal Latin sense, as Etymonline and the Oxford Dictionary of English note.^[3][10] The sense of departing from the direct way followed in 1628, which led to the figurative sense of swerving from the right path, in 1633.^[2][10] Latin itself had figurative senses such as "wandering in the byways" and "foolish, inconsistent".^[3] Johnson (1755) still defined the word by these meanings: out of the common track, wandering, and going astray from rectitude.^[11] The modern sense, deceitful or skilled in underhand methods, grew out of the idea of departing from the straight way.^[10] Etymonline dates "deceitful" to the 1630s,^[3] the Shorter Oxford groups cunning and dishonesty under a sense it dates to the early 17th century,^[6] and Merriam-Webster also records the sense of advancing toward an accepted end by roundabout means.^[7] The sense "remote" is now rare.^[6]

Timeline

• 1599 – lying out of the way, remote.^[2]
• 1628 – departing from the direct way, winding.^[2]
• 1633 – figurative, swerving from the straight way, erring.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "deceitful" to the 1630s.^[3]
• 1735 – of people or moving bodies, following a roving course.^[2]
• 1782 – adverb-like use, with a wandering course.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not straightforward or honest; deceitful or underhand: She found a devious way to dodge the fee.^[8][6]
2. Of a route or course, winding or roundabout: a devious track along the cliffs.^[8][7][2]
3. Straying from the right or accepted course; erring.^[8][7][2]
4. Moving without a fixed course; roving.^[7][2]
5. (rare) Off the main road; remote.^[7][2][6]

Word family

• deviously
• deviousness
• undevious

Related words

• deviate
• via
• way

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.