evil
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
- enPR: ē-vəl, ē-vĭl, IPA(key): /ˈiːvɪl/, /ˈiːvəl/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈivəl/
- Hyphenation: evil
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -iːvəl
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English yvel, evel, ivel, uvel, from Old English yfel, from Proto-West Germanic *ubil, from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz (compare Saterland Frisian eeuwel, Dutch euvel, Low German övel, German übel), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂upélos, diminutive of *h₂wep-, *h₂wap- (“treat badly”) (compare Hittite [script needed] (huwappi, “to mistreat, harass”), [script needed] (huwappa, “evil, badness”)), or alternatively from *upélos (“evil”, literally “going over or beyond (acceptable limits)”), from Proto-Indo-European *upo, *up, *eup (“down, up, over”).
AdjectiveEdit
evil (comparative eviller or eviler or more evil, superlative evillest or evilest or most evil)
- Intending to harm; malevolent.
- an evil plot to brainwash and even kill innocent people
- 1866, Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, Chapter 47,[1]
- For a good while the Miss Brownings were kept in ignorance of the evil tongues that whispered hard words about Molly.
- 1916, Zane Grey, The Border Legion, New York: Harper & Bros., Chapter 10, p. 147,[2]
- He looked at her shapely person with something of the brazen and evil glance that had been so revolting to her in the eyes of those ruffians.
- 2006, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow, New York: Pantheon, Book Three, Section II, Chapter 3, p. 351,[3]
- “Before this, I never had any cause to suspect my wife of any conspiracy.”
- “You mean it never crossed your mind that she might have been told to whisper evil thoughts in your ear at night?”
- Morally corrupt.
- If something is evil, it is never mandatory.
- Do you think that companies that engage in animal testing are evil?
- c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act III, Scene 3,[4]
- Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,
- When death’s approach is seen so terrible.
- 1848, Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Chapter 41,[5]
- I had much trouble at first in breaking him of those evil habits his father had taught him to acquire […]
- 1967, Chaim Potok, The Chosen, New York: Fawcett Columbine, 2003, Chapter 1, p. 14,[6]
- To the rabbis who taught in the Jewish parochial schools, baseball was an evil waste of time […]
- Unpleasant, foul (of odour, taste, mood, weather, etc.).
- 1660, John Harding (translator), Paracelsus his Archidoxis, London: W.S., Book 7, “Of an Odoriferous Specifick,” p. 100,[7]
- An Odoriferous Specifick […] is a Matter that takes away Diseases from the Sick, no otherwise then as Civet drives away the stinck of Ordure by its Odour; for you are to observe, That the Specifick doth permix it self with this evil Odour of the Dung; and the stink of the Dung cannot hurt, no[r] abide there […]
- 1897, H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man, Chapter 18,[8]
- He awoke in an evil temper […]
- 1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part V, “Mazar-i-Sherif,” p. 282,[9]
- It was an evil day, sticky and leaden: Oxiana looked as colourless and suburban as India.
- 1958, Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana, Penguin, 1979, Part Four, Chapter 1, p. 125,[10]
- He herded them into a small and evil toilet and then through a window.
- 1993, Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries, Toronto: Random House of Canada, Chapter One, p. 39,[11]
- Everyone in the tiny, crowded, hot, and evil-smelling kitchen […] has been invited to participate in a moment of history.
- 1660, John Harding (translator), Paracelsus his Archidoxis, London: W.S., Book 7, “Of an Odoriferous Specifick,” p. 100,[7]
- Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous.
- c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act V, Scene 6,[12]
- The owl shrieked at thy birth,—an evil sign;
- 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Deuteronomy 22.19,[13]
- […] he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel:
- 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes in Paradise Regain’d, to which is added Samson Agonistes, London: John Starkey, p. 89, lines 438-439,[14]
- A little stay will bring some notice hither,
- For evil news rides post, while good news baits.
- 1931, Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth, New York: Modern Library, 1944, Chapter 15, p. 122,[15]
- “ […] with bandits and robbers roving over the land in these evil times of famine and war, how can it be said that this one or that stole anything? Hunger makes thief of any man.”
- c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act V, Scene 6,[12]
- (obsolete) Having harmful qualities; not good; worthless or deleterious.
- an evil beast; an evil plant; an evil crop
- 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Matthew 7.18,[16]
- A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
- (computing, programming, slang) undesirable; harmful; bad practice
- Global variables are evil; storing processing context in object member variables allows those objects to be reused in a much more flexible way.
SynonymsEdit
- nefarious
- malicious
- malevolent
- wicked
- See also Thesaurus:evil
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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NounEdit
evil (countable and uncountable, plural evils)
- Moral badness; wickedness; malevolence; the forces or behaviors that are the opposite or enemy of good.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Ecclesiastes 9:3:
- The heart of the sons of men is full of evil.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 16, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
- The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
- The evils of society include murder and theft.
- Evil lacks spirituality, hence its need for mind control.
- Something which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; something which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; harm; injury; mischief.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book 9”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
- evils which our own misdeeds have wrought
- 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:
- The evil that men do lives after them.
- (obsolete) A malady or disease; especially in the phrase king's evil (scrofula).
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
- 1711 March 24, Joseph Addison; Richard Steele, “TUESDAY, March 13, 1710–1711 [Julian calendar]”, in The Spectator, number 329; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, OCLC 191120697:
- He [Edward the Confessor] was the first that touched for the evil.
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English yvel, evel, ivel, uvel (“evilly”), from Old English yfele, yfle (“evilly”), a derivative of the noun yfel (“evil”). Often reinterpreted as the noun in the later language (as in "to speak evil").
AdverbEdit
evil (comparative more evil, superlative most evil)
- (obsolete) wickedly, evilly, iniquitously
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], part I (books I–III), London: […] [Richard Field] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 932900760, book I, stanza ii, page 66:
- O what of Gods then boots it to be borne, / If old Aveugles ſonnes ſo euill heare?
- (obsolete) injuriously, harmfully; in a damaging way.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 2 Peter 2:2:
- And many ſhall follow their pernicious wayes, by reaſon of whom the way of trueth ſhall be euill ſpoken of:
- (obsolete) badly, poorly; in an insufficient way.
- It went evil with him.
Usage notesEdit
This adverb was usually used in conjunction with speak.
ReferencesEdit
- James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928) , “Evil, adv.”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume III (D–E), London: Clarendon Press, OCLC 15566697, page 350, column 2.
AnagramsEdit
Middle EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
AdjectiveEdit
evil
- Alternative form of yvel (“evil”)
Etymology 2Edit
AdverbEdit
evil
- Alternative form of yvel (“evilly”)