evil
Meanings
- Intending to harm; malevolent.
- Morally corrupt.
- Unpleasant, foul (of odor, taste, mood, weather, etc.).
- Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous.
- Having harmful qualities; not good; worthless or deleterious.
- Undesirable; harmful; bad practice.
- Moral badness; wickedness; malevolence; the forces or behaviors that are the opposite or enemy of good.
- 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.
- A malady or disease; especially in combination, as in king's evil, colt evil.
- wickedly, evilly, iniquitously
- injuriously, harmfully; in a damaging way.
- badly, poorly; in an insufficient way.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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”).