Etymograph

English

Mephistopheles

Mephistopheles may come from Hebrew אֵל ‘god, deity’.

  1. Hebrew1880s–presentאֵל‘god, deity’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1899Mephistopheles

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Hebrew1880s–presentאֵל‘god, deity’uncertain
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1899Mephistopheles

Earliest quotation: 1899, Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness: “I let him run on, this papier-maché Mephistopheles, and…”

The story

The two-time occurrence of -ph- which is the Roman transliteration for Ancient Greek φ and of the termination -es which transliterates Ancient Greek -ης as in Aristoteles (Ἀριστοτέλης) along with the resemblance -phel-/-phil- bears to φιλεῖν (phileîn, “to love”) has led many to believe that this must originally be a Greek compound word. Based on this assumption, the first two letters have been identified with μή (mḗ, “not”), while -phisto-/-phosto- has been interpreted as a corruption of φωτο- (phōto-), the compositional form of φῶς (phôs, “light”). The name would thus mean "not loving light" which seems fitting for a devil. However, there are two major problems with this theory.disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.

Every English word from Hebrew אֵל

Today it means

name The Devil to whom Faust sold his soul in the legend.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Hebrew אֵל / Mephistopheles

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