evil

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   morally bad or wrong

   evil purposes

2. 2
   noun

   the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice

   attempts to explain the origin of evil in the world

3. 3
   noun

   that which causes harm or destruction or misfortune

   the evil that men do lives after them

4. 4
   adj

   Intending to harm; malevolent.

   an evil plot to brainwash and even kill innocent people

5. 5
   adj

   Morally corrupt.

   If something is evil, it is never mandatory.

6. 6
   adj

   Unpleasant, foul (of odor, taste, mood, weather, etc.).

   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 […]

7. 7
   adj

   Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous.

   The owl shrieked at thy birth,—an evil sign;

8. 8
   adj

   Having harmful qualities; not good; worthless or deleterious.

   an evil beast; an evil plant; an evil crop

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…