When you look up the word evil in the dictionary you get morally wrong, bad, immoral, wicked, harmful, injurious, misfortune, suffering,bad,vice unfortunate, disastrous, bad conduct or character, wicked or immoral,vice, anything causing injury or harm, pain, profound immorality, sorrow,vice, bad character, or distress so on.
All these different words but it does not properly define it. How do you communicate with other English speaker when the word is not define?
A evil theft took candy from the store vs evil serial killer that killed three people. Does the word change with the sentence? When do you use the word evil when speaking?
But how to you communicate to other English speaker when surly you don’t mean example say evil serial killer vs drunk person.
Otherwise court have 100 years in prison for every offense and there would be no distinction of crime if every thing was define as evil.
Some one having too much booze or always drunk may view as evil or wicked but surly don’t mean same example as say a serial killer or killer.
Or is any thing not part of group conformity is evil?
Why would English scholars not define word better to stop this confusion?
I had some toast this morning that was really good.
He was such a good soldier in the war that he saved the lives of 25 men.
Wow. The meaning of a word can be shaded by degree depending on the context. Who knew!?
But it does not seem to be just the meaning of the word in the context but the words it self.
When you look up the word evil in the dictionary you get
—morally wrong
—bad
—immoral
—wicked
—harmful
—injurious
—misfortune
—suffering
—bad
—vice
—unfortunate
—disastrous
—bad conduct
—bad character
—anything causing injury or harm
—pain
—sorrow
—profound immorality
How do you know what it is and what to use? How do you know they mean harmful or bad conduct or say vice or pain.
Some one having too much booze or always drunk is evil (harmful) (pain) (bad conduct)
As the first reply pointed out, there are many words in the English language (and, I suspect, in most natural human languages) that have multiple meanings and connotations, so that one has to determine from the context exactly what is meant in any specific usage of the word.
The English language is not dictated by experts. It never has been and never will be. It is organic and takes on and drops meanings as people speak it.
Any “expert” who would dictate something like this is not an expert and the attempt would give great amusement to people who have actually studied the language.
Some of this may be translating problem into English or the fact English is really old and meaning of the words change over time.
Where English scholars had to translate that word from other languages. If other languages XY use the word evil and evil in languages XY means misfortune, suffering, bad, immoral and vice than those word will have to translate to English.
If 6 billion people on earth where to learn new languages call it new earth languages 11 would we still have this problem? Or would it come into play translating old text or other languages or old languages that this problem can happen even if 6 billion people on earth where to learn new earth languages 11 we have yet to invent.
There are no “English scholars.” That is, there are scholars of English, but there is no committee gathering together and deciding the definition of words. It happens person by person, day by day. It is chaotic. It is anarchic. There is no “they”, “they” is us.
I got the impression that English is not the OP’s first language. Which makes me wonder what is, and whether that language has “official definitions” for all its words.
So when you are reading how do you know what word they mean in the context?
Some one having too much booze or always drunk is evil (harmful) (pain) (bad conduct)
How do you know what word they mean? If they really mean is some one having too much booze or always drunk is evil is (bad conduct) (voice).
When you communicate to other English speaker how do they know the word evil killer or evil serial killer or killer is not the same word evil as in the evil kid that took candy from the store.
And in reality, the average English speaker in everyday conversation or writing would in fact say say “Having too much booze or being always drunk is bad” or “…is harmful” or “…is a vice”, depending on the message they are trying to send and the audience. And they know exactly what is the difference between the evil murderer and the evil bad kid.
It’s called context of usage, cultural familiarity and linguistic socialization - someone with an adequate level of fluency can grasp what is being meant. Even in the case of the languages where there are Academies to ensure everyone’s on the same page (Spanish, French), there is recognition of that reality. “Mal” can be “bad” or “wrong” as adjective or “disease” or “evil” as noun and the Academia is just fine with that. Even in “dead” language Latin, DOMINVS depending on where you use it can be a master of the manor, a lord of your realm, or it can be “The LORD thy God”.
It’s a matter of the severity of the crime. We consider a serial killer evil because murder is considered the most heinous crime there is. He kills without remorse or consideration of his victims and their families and usually has no regard for the rest of society.
Stealing candy is a crime against property and is considered a victimless crime. A kid who steals candy isn’t considered evil. He may be impulsive and not be aware of the consequences of his crime, but it’s considered a pretty crime. It can often be made good by paying back the store owner for the stolen items or by having the kid undergo counseling. It’s not even as bad as burglary or auto theft. Kids are rarely put in detention for stealing candy. Their parents are usually held responsible.
Merely drinking too much or being drunk is not usually described as evil, although it can be argued that driving under the influence is evil, especially if the driver kills or injures someone else.
yes it can be confusing. context is important; not only do many words have multiple meanings, but a sentence of seven words can have seven meanings by just stressing one word and a different word the next:
I did not sleep with your sister (i cant speak for cochrane, though)
i did not sleep with your** SISTER** (your wife, on the other hand. . .)
etc
to paraphrase jimmy dugan “. . . it’s supposed to be hard, it’s the hard that makes it great!”
