Deviless

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A female demon or fiend who embodies wickedness and malevolence shows traits associated with temptation and sin
2. This term denotes a woman personifying evil, often linked to causing harm or luring others into wrongdoing
3. It refers to a female figure believed to possess supernatural powers for harm and mischief, representing the darker aspects of femininity

Etymology: "Deviless" is a rare adjective meaning "like a devil," formed by adding the suffix "-less" to "devil." The suffix is the one that appears in "fearless," "careless," and "endless," where it means "without" or "lacking." Attached to "devil," it gives a sense of being without devilish qualities, which is the opposite of what the meaning above describes, so the word's construction runs counter to its sense. The explanation is that "-less" was not always purely privative. In Old and Middle English, the suffix "-les" could also be used in a loose sense, and "deviless" is an example of how English speakers could build words on a pattern without it producing a strictly logical meaning. The word combines "devil" with the familiar English suffix to create a term whose meaning is only partly transparent from its parts.