Etymograph

English

evil

Evil comes from Old English yfel ‘bad, evil’, from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz ‘evil, bad’, whose deeper origin is disputed.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*ubilaz1‘evil, bad’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*ubil1‘evil, bad’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150yfel1‘bad, evil’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500yvel1‘morally evil’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1591evil1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English evil
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*ubilazWiktionary, English evil‘evil, bad’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*ubilWiktionary, English evil‘evil, bad’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150yfelWiktionary, English evil‘bad, evil’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500yvelWiktionary, English evil‘morally evil’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1591evilWiktionary, English evil. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,…”

The story

See -le for the supposed suffix.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with evil, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Germanic *ubilaz ‘evil, bad’

  • worst ← worste ← wierrest ← *wirsistaz
  • worse ← wiersa ← *wirsiʀō

Explore everything descended from *ubilaz →

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Today it means

adj Intending to harm; malevolent.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “evil”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *ubilaz / evil