evil
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: ē-vəl
enpr: ē-vĭl
ipa: /ˈiːvɪl/
ipa: /ˈiːvl̩/
ipa: /ˈivəl/
ipa: [ˈivəɫ]
ipa: [ˈivɫ̩]
rhymes: -iːvəl
Forms: form: eviller
form: eviler
form: more evil
form: evillest
form: evilest
form: most evil
Etymology: From Middle English yvel, evel, ivel, uvel, from Old English yfel, from Proto-West Germanic *ubil, from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂up(h₁)élos, a deverbal derivative of *h₂wep(h₁)-, *h₂wop(h₁)- (“treat badly”). See -le for the supposed suffix.
Alternatively from *upélos (“evil”, literally “going over or beyond (acceptable limits)”), from Proto-Indo-European *upo, *h₃ewp- (“down, up, over”).
Cognates
Cognate with Dutch euvel (“evil”), German übel (“bad, evil”), German Low German övel (“evil”), Luxembourgish iwwel (“queasy, nauseous; bad”), Gothic 𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌻𐍃 (ubils, “bad, evil”). Compare Old Irish fel (“bad, evil”), from Proto-Celtic *uɸelos, and Hittite 𒄷𒉿𒀊𒍣 (huwapp-ⁱ, “to mistreat, harass”), 𒄷𒉿𒀊𒉺𒀸 (huwappa-, “evil, badness”).
Senses: examples: text: an evil plot to brainwash and even kill innocent people
text: For a good while the Miss Brownings were kept in ignorance of the evil tongues that whispered hard words about Molly.
ref: 1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 47, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1916, Zane Grey, chapter 10, in The Border Legion, New York: Harper & Bros., page 147:
text: 2006, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow, New York: Pantheon, Book Three, Section II, Chapter 3, p. 351,
“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?”
text: He tells secret dreams to strangers , imagines he can achieve art without discipline , regards all boundaries as evil , ignores ancestors , wants comfort and merging , believes cunning is wrong , and as a scholar or artist doesn't […]
ref: 1989, Pilgrimage, volume 15, Human Sciences Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 7:
glosses: Intending to harm; malevolent.
examples: text: If something is evil, it is never mandatory.
text: Do you think that companies that engage in animal testing are evil?
text: Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,
When death’s approach is seen so terrible.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
text: I had much trouble at first in breaking him of those evil habits his father had taught him to acquire […]
ref: 1848, Anne Brontë, chapter 41, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:
text: To the rabbis who taught in the Jewish parochial schools, baseball was an evil waste of time […]
ref: 1967, Chaim Potok, chapter 1, in The Chosen, New York: Fawcett Columbine, published 2003, page 14:
glosses: Morally corrupt.
examples: text: 1660, John Harding (translator), Paracelsus his Archidoxis, London: W.S., Book 7, “Of an Odoriferous Specifick,” p. 100,
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 […]
text: He awoke in an evil temper […]
ref: 1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 18, in The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
text: 1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part V, “Mazar-i-Sherif,” p. 282,
It was an evil day, sticky and leaden: Oxiana looked as colourless and suburban as India.
text: He herded them into a small and evil toilet and then through a window.
ref: 1958, Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana, Penguin, published 1979, Part Four, Chapter 1, p. 125:
text: Everyone in the tiny, crowded, hot, and evil-smelling kitchen […] has been invited to participate in a moment of history.
ref: 1993, Carol Shields, chapter 1, in The Stone Diaries, Toronto: Random House of Canada, page 39:
glosses: Unpleasant, foul (of odor, taste, mood, weather, etc.).
examples: text: The owl shrieked at thy birth,—an evil sign;
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi]:
text: […] he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel:
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 22:19:
text: A little stay will bring some notice hither,
For evil news rides post, while good news baits.
ref: 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 89, lines 438-439:
text: “[…] 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.”
ref: 1931, Pearl S. Buck, chapter 15, in The Good Earth, New York: Modern Library, published 1944, page 122:
text: I cannot overestimate how much it meant to me to have the support of my brothers in BWMT/MACT both in and out of prison while I was laid up with pneumocystis pneumonia during those dog days of August 1987. My wall is decked with cards, letters, and pictures from those evil days, and my support system included rides, flowers, candy, magazines of every description, and lots of hugs from gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.
ref: 1988 February 14, Richard Tremblay, “A Boat With A Sail”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 30, page 5:
glosses: Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous.
examples: text: an evil beast; an evil plant; an evil crop
text: A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 7:18:
glosses: Having harmful qualities; not good; worthless or deleterious.
examples: text: Global variables are evil; storing processing context in object member variables allows those objects to be reused in a much more flexible way.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: Undesirable; harmful; bad practice.
Synonyms: word: nefarious
word: malicious
word: malevolent
word: wicked
word: abandoned
word: arrant
word: bad
word: bad apple
word: bad seed
word: baleful
word: baneful
word: base
word: dark
word: deleterious
word: depraved
word: despicable
word: detrimental
word: devilish
word: diabolical
word: evil
word: flagitious
word: harmful
word: ill-intentioned
word: ill-natured
word: immoral
word: incorrigible
word: iniquitous
word: iniquous
word: injurious
word: knavish
word: malefic
word: maleficent
word: malign
word: malignant
word: niddering
word: nidering
word: niding
word: nithing
word: no-good
word: peccaminous
word: pernicious
word: reprehensible
word: reprobate
word: satanic
word: scathful
word: sinful
word: sinister
word: sordid
word: sullen
word: ungodly
word: unholy
word: vicious
word: vile
word: villainous
word: wrong
Hyponyms: word: ominous
Derived terms: chaotic evil
colt's evil
evil be to him who evil thinks
evil day
evil-doer
evil eye
evil-eye
evilfare
evil genius
evil hour
evilista
evility
evilize
evil laugh
evil laughter
evilly
evil maid attack
evil-minded
evilness
Evil One
evil-speaking
evil-tempered
evil turn
evil twin
evilution
evilutionary
evilutionist
evil willer
mid-evil
moor-evil
nonevil
pure evil
turning evil
unevil
Related terms: word: villainy