evil eye

evil eye

See also: evil-eye

English

Etymology

Calque of Latin oculus (“an eye”) + malus (“bad, evil, wicked, injurious”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

evil eye (plural evil eyes)

1. A wicked look that is believed by many cultures to be able to cause injury or bad luck due to envy or dislike.
   • 1890, “Fascinum”, in William Smith, editor, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities:

     Various amulets were used to avert the influence of the evil eye. The most common of these appears to have been the phallus, called by the Romans fascinum, which was hung round the necks of children.

   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 26:

     A common dread was the evil eye, and the chief charm against it was in the form of a knotted cord woven by a "wise woman".

   • 1964, Leonard Feather (lyrics and music), “Evil Gal Blues”, performed by Aretha Franklin:

     If you tell me, "Good morning" / I'm gonna tell you, "That's a lie" / If you say I'm old, baby / I'm gonna give you the evil eye

2. A curse.

   Synonyms: hex, (archaic) jettatura, jinx, whammy

Derived terms

• evil-eye
• evils

Translations

wicked look

Albanian: syri i keq Amharic: ቡዳ (buda) Arabic: عَيْن اَلْحَسُود‎ f (ʿayn al-ḥasūd) Armenian: չար աչքն (čʿar ačʿkʿn) Azerbaijani: nəzər (az), göz (az) Catalan: mal d'ull m Chinese: Mandarin: 邪眼 (zh) (xiéyǎn) Czech: uhranutí Dutch: boze oog n Esperanto: malica okulo Estonian: kuri silm Finnish: paha silmä (fi) French: mauvais œil (fr) m Galician: mal de ollo (gl) m, meigallo m, aire (gl) m, ollada f Georgian: ავი თვალი (ka) (avi tvali) German: böser Blick m Gothic: 𐌰𐌿𐌲𐍉 𐌿𐌽𐍃𐌴𐌻 (augō unsēl) Greek: βασκανία (el) f (vaskanía), μάτιασμα (el) n (mátiasma) Hebrew: עַיִן הָרַע‎ (he) f ('áyin hará') Hindi: नज़र f (nazar), दृष्टि दोष f (dŕṣṭi doṣ) Hungarian: szemmel verés (hu) Irish: drochshúil f Italian: malocchio (it) m, iettatura (it) f Japanese: 邪視 (ja) (じゃし, jashi), 邪眼 (じゃがん, jagan), 魔眼 (まがん, magan), イーヴィルアイ (īviruai), 凶眼 (きょうがん, kyōgan) Kazakh: көз тию (köz tiü) Kikuyu: gĩthemengũ class 7 Korean: 사시(邪視) (ko) (sasi) Ladino: aynará Macedonian: урокливо око (uroklivo oko) Malay: mata jahat Malayalam: കണ്ണേറ് (ml) (kaṇṇēṟŭ), ദൃഷ്ടിദോഷം (ml) (dr̥ṣṭidōṣaṃ), നാവേറ് (ml) (nāvēṟŭ) Maltese: l-għajn f Norman: mauvais yi m Norwegian: onde øyet Persian: نظر‎ (fa) (nazar), چشم زخم‎ (fa) (čašm zaxm) Polish: złe oko (pl) Portuguese: mau olhado m, olho gordo (pt) m (Brazil) Punjabi: ਨਜ਼ਰ (pa) f (nazar) Romanian: deochi (ro) Russian: сглаз (ru) m (sglaz), дурно́й глаз (ru) m (durnój glaz) Scottish Gaelic: (both senses) droch shùil f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: урокљиво око n, урок m, назар m Roman: urokljivo oko n, urok (sh) m, nazar m Sicilian: occhiu potenti m, malocchiu m, occhiata (scn) f Spanish: mal de ojo (es) m Swedish: onda ögat Tagalog: usog, balis, ohiya Tamil: திருஷ்டி (ta) (tiruṣṭi) Telugu: దృష్టి (te) (dr̥ṣṭi), దిష్టి (te) (diṣṭi) Thai: นัยน์ตาปีศาจ (nai dtaa bpeesàat) Turkish: nazar (tr), göz (tr), kem göz (tr) Urdu: نظر‎ (ur) f (nazar) Welsh: llygad drwg m Yiddish: עין־הרע‎ (eyn-hore)

See also

• bad eye
• dirty look
• hairy eyeball
• Hand of Fatima / Hand of Miriam
• if looks could kill
• look daggers

References

• Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

Further reading

• evil eye on Wikipedia.Wikipedia