diabolus

See also: Diabolus

English

Etymology

From Latin diabolus. Doublet of devil, diable, and diablo.

Noun

diabolus (plural diaboluses)

1. (music) Synonym of tritone

Latin

Alternative forms

• diabulus, zabulus, zabolus (phonetic spellings)
• Diabolus, Zabolus, Zabulus (when used as a proper noun)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos, “slanderer”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /diˈa.bo.lus/, [d̪iˈäbɔɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /diˈa.bo.lus/, [d̪iˈäːbolus]

• Audio (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical):

  (file)

• Note: the three root vowels are phonemically short, but all are found lengthened in verse in order to fit the metre.

Noun

diabolus m (genitive diabolī); second declension

1. devil

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	diabolus	diabolī
Genitive	diabolī	diabolōrum
Dative	diabolō	diabolīs
Accusative	diabolum	diabolōs
Ablative	diabolō	diabolīs
Vocative	diabole	diabolī

Derived terms

• advocātus diabolī
• diabolicus

Descendants

All are early borrowings from Medieval Church Latin.

• Dalmatian:
  • diaul
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: diavolo
  • Neapolitan: diàvolo, diàvoro, riàvolo, riàbolo, diaulo, tiaolo
  • Sicilian: diàvulu, riàvulu
• North Italian:
  • Emilian: dièvol, diavo, diàvel, dièval
  • Friulian: diaul
  • Ligurian: diâo, diâvo
  • Lombard: diaul, deàul

    Eastern Lombard: giaul

  • Piedmontese: diau, dièu, diavo
  • Romagnol: geàvol, gevle, dièval
  • Romansch: diavel
  • Venetian: diavoło, diol, diauło, diaolo, diaoło, diaol, dial
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: diâbllo
  • Old French: deable, diable
    • Middle French: diable, dyable
      • French: diable, yiable
        • Haitian Creole: dyab
        • → English: diable, diablo
        • Chinook Jargon: le diaub
      • Norman: dgiâbl'ye (Jersey), diablle (France)
    • Walloon: diale
• Occitano-Romance:
  • Aragonese: diaple

    Ribagorçan: diaplle

  • Catalan: diable
  • Old Occitan: diable, diabol
    • Occitan: diable (all dialects)

      Nord-Occitan: diablhe

• West Iberian:
  • Asturian: diablu ⇒ diañu
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: diaboo
    • Galician: diaño, deño, diallo, dianllo
    • Portuguese: diabo, diá, diabro, diacho, dianho, dienho
      • Kadiwéu: diaabo
  • Old Spanish: diablo, diabolo
    • Ladino: diavlo
    • Spanish: diablo, diaulo
      • → English: diablo
      • → Tagalog: diyablo
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: diàbulu, diàulu, diàvulu
• → Albanian: djall
• → Proto-Basque: *deabulu
  • Basque: *deaburu, deabru
• → Belarusian: д’я́бал (dʺjábal)
• → Proto-Brythonic: *diaβul (see there for further descendants)
• → English: diabolus
• → Proto-West Germanic: *diubul (see there for further descendants)
• → Hawaiian: diabolo
• → Old Irish: díabul (see there for further descendants)
• → Old Norse: djǫfull (see there for further descendants)
• → Macedonian: ѓавол (ǵavol)
• → Malagasy: devoly
• → Old Czech: diábel (learned) (see there for further descendants)
• → Slovak: diabol

References

• “diabolus” in volume 5, part 1, column 940, line 65 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present

Further reading

• “diabolus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• diabolus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• diabolus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.