Etymology

guile

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Today it means: Astuteness often marked by a certain sense of cunning or artful deception. Full definition →

Middle English gile ← Anglo-Norman gile ← Old French guile
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guile · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*wey-“to turn, bend”
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*wīlą
  3. Frankish · derived from*wīl“ruse”
  4. Old French · derived fromguile“deception”
  5. Anglo-Norman · derived fromgile
  6. Middle English · inherited fromgile
  7. English todayguile

From Middle English gile, from Anglo-Norman gile, from Old French guile (“deception”), from Frankish *wīl (“ruse”), from Proto-Germanic *wīlą, from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, bend”). Cognate via Proto-Germanic with wile.

guile · noun2

Variant forms.

Guile · proper noun3

  1. French · borrowed fromguile
  2. English todayGuile

* As an English, Scottish, and French surname, borrowed from French guile. * Also as an English surname, variant of Gill. * Possibly also Americanized from the German surname Geil.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*wīlą all →

wile

Proto-Indo-European*wey- all →

wattlewilewithe

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.