wile

Meanings

1. A trick or stratagem practiced for ensnaring or deception; a sly, insidious artifice

1. To entice or lure.

1. Misspelling of while (“to pass the time”).

1. A surname transferred from the nickname.
2. A male given name transferred from the surname.

Etymology

From Middle English wile, wyle, from Old Northern French wile (“guile”) and Old English wīl (“wile, trick”) and wiġle (“divination”), from Proto-Germanic *wīlą (“craft, deceit”) (from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, bend”)) and Proto-Germanic *wigulą, *wihulą (“prophecy”) (from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to consecrate, hallow, make holy”)). Cognate with Icelandic vél, væl (“artifice, craft, device, fraud, trick”), Dutch wijle. Doublet of guile.