Etymologically
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evil

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈiː.vᵊl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English evel,[2] inherited from Old English yfel (“bad, wicked, vicious”) (Kentish evel),[3][2] from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz,[3][2][4] which is also the source of Old Saxon ubil, Old Frisian and Middle Dutch evel, Old High German ubil (German übel) and Gothic ubils.[3][2] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *upelo-, from a root *wap- “bad”, which also gave Hittite huwapp- “evil”;[3] Barnhart and Hoad instead derive it from the root of up and over, Hoad giving the original sense as “exceeding due limits”.[2][4] Merriam-Webster also compares Old English ūp “up”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Morally depraved, wicked: Barnhart dates the Old English adjective to about 725, in Beowulf,[2] and the OED's first example is from 971.[6] The noun, what is evil, is from Old English too.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old English and the other older Germanic languages except Scandinavian, it was the most general word of disapproval, used where modern English has bad, cruel, defective, harm, crime or disease.[3][6] In Middle English bad took over the wider range, and evil narrowed to moral badness;[3] the sense “extreme moral wickedness” only became the main sense of the word in the 18th century.[3] The noun was used especially of a disease from about 1200.[3] Of things, “causing harm” is from about 1175, and “unpleasant, offensive” from before 1131.[6] The evil eye goes back to Old English eage yfel, like Latin oculus malus.[3] The phrase necessary evil goes back to Greek; its first English example, from 1547, refers to a woman.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – adjective, in Beowulf.[2]
  • 971 – morally bad, wicked.[6]
  • c. 1175 – noun, evel.[2]
  • c. 1200 – a disease.[3]
  • c. 1273 – spelling evil, in the surname Evilchild.[2]
  • 1520s – evil-favoured, ugly.[3]
  • 1547 – necessary evil.[7]
  • 18th century – extreme wickedness becomes the main sense.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Morally bad; wicked.
  2. Causing harm, ruin or pain.
  3. Ominous; foreboding misfortune.
  4. Of bad repute; infamous.
  5. Malicious or spiteful: an evil temper.

Noun

  1. Wickedness; moral badness.
  2. Something that causes harm or suffering.
  3. An evil force or power, or its personification.

Adverb

  1. (archaic) In an evil manner: to speak evil of.

Word family

  • evilly
  • evilness
  • unevil
  • evil-minded
  • nonevil
  • evildoer
  • evildoing
  • evil eye

Usage notes

In Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall dialect, evil (also eel) was a three-pronged fork, which Merriam-Webster derives from Old English geafol “fork”.[8][5]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)