devil – English noun declension

English noun forms of devil

Noun: devil
Singulardevil
Pluraldevils

Sample Sentences

  • The devil in me wants to let him suffer.
  • Those two kids are devils in a toy store.
  • That math problem was a devil.
  • What in the devil is that?
  • What the devil is that?
  • She is having a devil of a time fixing it.
  • You can go to the devil for all I care.
  • 'Well, I'm damned,' said Bond. 'Of course that old devil M never told me. He just gives one the facts. Never tells one any good news. I suppose he thinks it might influence one's decision to take a case or not.' [1954, Ian Fleming, “The Red Carpet”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 8:]
  • For he will not leave his listener to dwell upon sorrow when the print office beckons and he can show you what a good little devil he became. [2010, Andrea Levy, The Long Song, Tinder Press (2017), page 381:]
  • The formation of tornados and water-spouts is very probably identical with that of dust-storms and "devils," viz., a sudden disturbance of the vertical equilibrium of the atmosphere, where by an upward rush of air is generated, which rapidly becomes spiral. [1877, H. F. Blandford, Indian Meteorologist's Vade-mecum, page 140:]
  • There are few sights more appalling than a sandstorm in the desert, the "Zauba'ah" as the Arabs call it. Devils, or pillars of sand, vertical and inclined, measuring a thousand feet high[.] [1885, Richard F. Burton, chapter XII, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume I, The Burton Club, page 114 footnote:]
  • devil strip
  • Men and women busy in baking, broiling, roasting oysters, and preparing devils on the gridiron. [1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:]
  • The woollen things are torn to pieces by a machine having spiked rollers (termed a devil), cleansed, and the fibre spun with a certain proportion of new wool, the yarn being afterwards woven into the full-bodied but flimsy fabric termed shoddy. [1918, Henry J. Spooner, Wealth from Waste: Elimination of Waste A World Problem, George Routledge & Sons, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 200:]
  • He removes his food, water, and torch from the pack and then pushes it to the far end of the tent – no devil is going to rip his pack apart tonight. [1999, Julia Leigh, The Hunter, Faber & Faber 2012, p. 32]
  • In the 1800s, for example, workers at a wool company were scared that the devils would attack their sheep. [2008, Joyce L. Markovics, Tasmanian Devil: Nighttime Scavenger, page 8:]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁
3. Proto-Indo-European *dwísder.
4. Ancient Greek διά (diá)
5. Ancient Greek δια- (dia-)
6. Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-der.
7. Proto-Hellenic *gʷəlnō
8. Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō)
9. Ancient Greek διαβάλλω (diabállō)
10. Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos)bor.
11. Latin diabolusbor.
12. Proto-West Germanic *diubul
13. Old English dēofol
14. Middle English devel
15. English devil
16. From Middle English devil, devel, deovel, from Old English dēofol, from Proto-West Germanic *diubul, from Latin diabolus, ultimately from Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos, “false accuser, slanderer”), also as "Satan" (in Jewish/Christian usage, translating Biblical Hebrew שָׂטָן (śātān)), from διαβάλλω (diabállō, “to slander”), literally “to throw across”, from διά (diá, “through, across”) + βάλλω (bállō, “throw”). The Old English word was probably adopted under influence of Latin diabolus (itself from the Greek). Other Germanic languages adopted the word independently: compare Saterland Frisian Düüwel (“devil”), West Frisian duvel (“devil”), Dutch duivel, duvel (“devil”), German Low German Düvel (“devil”), German Teufel (“devil”), Bavarian Teifl (“devil”), Danish djævel (“devil”), Swedish djävul (“devil”) (older: djefvul, Old Swedish diævul, Old Norse djǫfull). Doublet of diable, diablo, and diabolus. See: Middle English Nouns 'devil', Latin Nouns 'diabolus', Ancient Greek Nouns 'διάβολος', Dutch Nouns 'duivel', German Nouns 'Teufel', Danish Nouns 'djævel', Swedish Nouns 'djävul', Old Norse Nouns 'djǫfull'.

Verbs referencing "devil"

German Nouns Teufel, Swedish Nouns djävul, Danish Nouns djævel, Norwegian Bokmål Nouns djevel.