pure evil meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

pure evil

noun

Etymology Has been rising in usage from other phrases using this sense of pure since around the 1950s. Has been rising exponentially as a set phrase since the 1990s.

Absolute evil; that has no sense of morality or mercy at all.

I can only say I was captivated by the film and its stealthy evocation of pure evil.2022 May 26, Peter Bradshaw, “Pacifiction review – trouble in paradise, in apocalyptic Tahitian mystery”, in The Guardian:

pure evil

adj

Etymology Has been rising in usage from other phrases using this sense of pure since around the 1950s. Has been rising exponentially as a set phrase since the 1990s.

Absolutely evil; having no sense of morality or mercy whatsoever.

This, as I take it, was because all human beings, as we meet them, are commingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil.1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 114: