evil

• adj.邪悪な; 不幸な; 有害な; 憎むべき
• n.罪、悪、不幸

PIE *upeloから、*upoの拡大形で、語源的には以下のsubと同じ。元々の意味は過剰であったが、さらに悪化し、最終的には過剰から邪悪になった。

evil

evil: [OE] Evil has got distinctly worse over the millennia. Originally it seems to have signified nothing more sinister than ‘uppity’, and in the Old and Middle English period it meant simply ‘bad’; it is only in modern English that its connotations of ‘extreme moral wickedness’ came to the fore. It probably comes ultimately from *upelo- a derivative of the Indo-European base *upo- ‘under’ (source of Greek hupó ‘under’, Sanskrit upa ‘at, to’, and English up and over), and so its underlying connotation is of ‘exceeding due limits, extremism’.

Its Germanic descendant was *ubilaz, source of German übel ‘evil’ as well as English evil.
=> over, up

evil (adj.)

Old English yfel (Kentish evel) "bad, vicious, ill, wicked," from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz (cognates: Old Saxon ubil, Old Frisian and Middle Dutch evel, Dutch euvel, Old High German ubil, German übel, Gothic ubils), from PIE *upelo-, from root *wap- "bad, evil" (cognates: Hittite huwapp- "evil").

In Old English and other older Germanic languages other than Scandinavian, "this word is the most comprehensive adjectival expression of disapproval, dislike or disparagement" [OED]. Evil was the word the Anglo-Saxons used where we would use bad, cruel, unskillful, defective (adj.), or harm (n.), crime, misfortune, disease (n.). In Middle English, bad took the wider range of senses and evil began to focus on moral badness. Both words have good as their opposite. Evil-favored (1520s) meant "ugly." Evilchild is attested as an English surname from 13c.

The adverb is Old English yfele, originally of words or speech. Also as a noun in Old English, "what is bad; sin, wickedness; anything that causes injury, morally or physically." Especially of a malady or disease from c. 1200. The meaning "extreme moral wickedness" was one of the senses of the Old English noun, but it did not become established as the main sense of the modern word until 18c. As a noun, Middle English also had evilty. Related: Evilly. Evil eye (Latin oculus malus) was Old English eage yfel. The jocular notion of an evil twin as an excuse for regrettable deeds is by 1986, American English, from an old motif in mythology.

evil (n.)

Old English yfel (see evil (adj.)).

1. When we go out，girls are always giving me the evil eye.

私たちが外に出ると、女の子たちはいつも嫉妬の目で私を見ていた。

2.Two and a half years ago I gave up the evil weed.

2年半前に私は改心して大麻を吸わなくなった。

3.With knowledge and wisdom, evil could be vanquished on this earth.

知識と知恵を持っていれば悪をこの世から排除することができる。

4.After 1760 few Americans refrained from condemning slavery as evil .

1760年以降、多くのアメリカ人が奴隷制の社会的危害を非難している。

5.The perpetrators of this evil deed must be brought to justice.

この悪行に関与した犯人を逮捕しなければならない。