The Adversary or the Devil?: Semantic Analysis of Wiþer-Nouns in Old English

Abstract

The examination of Old and Middle English religious lexis has attracted attention of many scholars. However, there are hardly any studies that would offer a comprehensive diachronic analysis of the terms denoting ‘Satan/(the)Devil’. The authors of the present study aim to fill this gap by conducting a systematic analysis of early English lexical field of ‘(the) evil spirit’, beginning with the analysis of Old English items that could potentially refer to ‘Satan/(the)Devil’

Keywords

• old english lexis
• wiþer
• agent nouns
• (the) devil
• evil spirit
• corpus study