Etymology

bedevil

B3E1D2E1V4I1L1

Today it means: To harass or cause trouble for; to plague. Full definition →

English devil ← Middle English devel ← Old English dēofol
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁ep-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éps
  3. Proto-Indo-European*h₁épi
  4. Proto-Indo-European*h₁pi
  5. Proto-Germanic*bi
  6. Proto-Germanic*bi-
  7. Proto-West Germanic*bi-
  8. Old Englishbe-
  9. Middle Englishbi-
  10. Englishbe-
  11. Proto-Indo-European*dwóh₁
  12. Proto-Indo-European*trísinflu.
  13. Proto-Indo-European*dwís
  14. Ancient Greekδιά (diá)
  15. Ancient Greekδια- (dia-)
  16. Proto-Indo-European*gʷelH-
  17. Proto-Hellenic*gʷəlnō
  18. Ancient Greekβάλλω (bállō)
  19. Ancient Greekδιαβάλλω (diabállō)
  20. Ancient Greekδιάβολος (diábolos)
  21. Latindiabolus
  22. Proto-West Germanic*diubul
  23. Old Englishdēofol
  24. Middle Englishdevel
  25. Englishdevil
  26. English todaybedevil

From be- + devil.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.