diablerie

Feeling devilish? Then you might be guilty of at least a little diablerie. Like the related and perhaps more familiar diabolical, the French diablerie originated with the Late Latin diabolus, which means "devil." Fittingly, diablerie was first applied to things related to the devil or to demons, particularly sorcery that was thought to call upon their aid; the word is also applied to representations of the demonic. Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown and Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes contain examples of such representations in literature. Nowadays, the word often suggests a devilish quality or air in a musical performance or artistic work.