Wickedness
synonym for evil or sinfulness
Wickedness is generally considered a synonym for evil or sinfulness. Among theologians and philosophers, it has the more specific meaning of a profound evil committed consciously and of free will. It can also be considered the quality or state of being wicked.
As characterized by Martin Buber in his 1952 work Bilder von Gut und Böse (translated as Good and Evil: Two Interpretations), "The first stage of evil is 'sin,' occasional directionlessness. Endless possibility can be overwhelming, leading man to grasp at anything, distracting and busying himself, in order to not have to make a real, committed choice. The second stage of evil is 'wickedness,' when caprice is embraced as a deformed substitute for genuine will and becomes characteristic." Wickedness connotes blameworthiness.
Etymology
The term wickedness dates back to the 1300s and is derived from the words wicked and -ness. Wicked is an extended form of the term wick meaning bad and is also associated with the Old English term wicca meaning a (male) witch. There is not a corresponding verb to the term, but the term wretched is also associated with the term. The term -ness is a word forming element denoting action, quality or state and is typically added to an adjective or past participle to make it an abstract noun.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wickedness” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.