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Do "Devi" and "Devil" have related roots?

English Language & Usage Asked on June 25, 2021

I understand that “Devi” is feminine of “Deva”, meaning “heavenly, divine, anything of excellence”, and is also one of the terms for a deity in Hinduism” according to Wikipedia and is from Sanskrit.

Meanwhile, “devil derives from the Middle English devel, from the Old English dēofol, that in turn represents an early Germanic borrowing of the Latin diabolus” according to Wikipedia.

Considering they both refer to divine beings, but of opposite ends of the spectrum, is their similarity just coincidence, or was there any attempt by Western people to discredit Eastern religions?

3 Answers

To answer this question, I start with the related Oxford English Dictionary entries. Devil has a long etymology, of which these two excerpts cut close to the source:

ultimately < Hellenistic Greek διάβολος (in Jewish and Christian use) the Devil, Satan (Septuagint, New Testament), specific use of ancient Greek διάβολος accuser, slanderer, use as noun of διάβολος backbiting ( < δια- dia- prefix1 + -βολος (see peribolos n.), after διαβάλλειν to slander, lit. ‘to throw across’),

...

With reference to the adversary of the Judaeo-Christian God (see sense 1), Hellenistic Greek ὁ διάβολος (with definite article) is used in the Septuagint to translate biblical Hebrew ha-śaṭan , lit. ‘the adversary’ ( < ha- the + śaṭan Satan n.); early Latin versions of these texts (Vetus Latina) usually translate this as diabolus , whereas the Old Testament of the Vulgate uses Satan in most passages (except originally in Psalm 108:6, as it incorporates the Gallican Psalter based on the Septuagint; compare quot. a1382 at sense 1).

The Greek New Testament uses both ὁ διάβολος and ὁ Σατανᾶς ( < Hebrew: see Satanas n.) to denote the adversary of God.

(Hellenistic Greek διάβολος also occasionally appears in biblical contexts in its more literal sense ‘accuser, slanderer’ (Septuagint: Esther; New Testament: Timothy, Titus).)

Deva is relatively simple:

Sanskrit dēva a god, originally ‘a bright or shining one’ < *div- to shine.

So deva is rooted in Sanskrit, and devil in Greek. The Sanskrit root goes back to "to shine"; the Greek root goes back to "to slander." At least so far, there is no connection between the two.

If you look up the Indo-European roots in the American Heritage Dictionary, you find Deva instead grouped with another kind of divinity. Under "dyeu-" we have everything from deus (God) and diva to Deva and words derived from the Latin dies (day): diet, diary, and so on. Devil has another root entirely, "gwelə-." So I'd look there for a starting point on what words are related to Deva and devil.

Correct answer by TaliesinMerlin on June 25, 2021

I had taken a comparative religions course some while ago, and my professors had mentioned precisely what was mentioned here- that when there was a separation from polytheism to the idea of monotheism, terminology surrounding what other religions, (in this case eastern deities) viewed as being sacred, became rooted in the associated lexicon of evil. Therefore, devil and deva are the same thing that have become culturally opposing concepts in the realm of linguistics and the etymology that has separated Western and Eastern religious thought.

Answered by Emily jawoisz on June 25, 2021

Thanks Emily Jawoisz, for your answer. It would be nice to know the name of the professor and his contact. He might be able to explain it with more reference.

I have seen the same explanation in Swami Vivekananda's lecture.

"The Soul And God", delivered in San Francisco, March 23, 1900. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_1/Lectures_And_Discourses/The_Soul_And_God

This is the sentence, you can search for it in the above lecture:

"The word Deva is an old Sanskrit word for God, the same word in the Aryan languages. Here the word means the devil. ... "

Answered by sguha on June 25, 2021

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