Evil Once Meant Simply Bad
Evil means profoundly immoral. The Old English word covered anything unpleasant, with no moral weight.
Evil means profoundly immoral or malevolent. Old English *yfel* was much weaker, meaning simply bad, unpleasant or defective, and covered a rough sea or a poor harvest as readily as a wicked act. It was the ordinary opposite of *good*, and the modern moral intensity developed later, largely through religious use. The traces remain in *evil-smelling*, which means nothing more than unpleasant, and in the old phrase *the king's evil* for a disease.
- Profoundly immoral. *An evil act.*
- Bad (archaic). *Evil weather.*
- Unpleasant. *Evil-smelling.*
- Evildoer. *An evildoer.*
- Old English — *yfel*, bad. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Adjective | evil | Evil. |
| Noun | evil | An evil. |
| Adverb | evilly | Evilly. |
| Compound | evildoer | An evildoer. |
| Old English | yfel | Bad. |
- It was an evil deed.Morality.
- An evil-smelling drain.Weak sense.
- Yfel simply meant bad.Etymology.
Words that grew stronger
- Evil — from merely bad to profoundly wicked
- Awful — from inspiring awe to very bad
- Terrible — from causing terror to simply poor
- Villain — from a farm worker to a criminal
- Notorious — from well known to infamous
Old English *yfel*, bad or defective, of Germanic origin, related to Dutch *euvel*.
Did evil always mean wicked?
No. Old English yfel meant simply bad or unpleasant, covering poor weather as readily as wrongdoing. The moral weight came later.
What was the king's evil?
Scrofula, a tuberculous swelling of the neck, so called because a monarch's touch was believed to cure it.