1590s, the evil spirit to whom Faust sold his soul in the German legend, from German (1587), of unknown origin. According to the speculation of eminent Göthe scholar K.J. Schröer (1886) it is a compound of Hebrew mephitz "destroyer" + tophel "liar" (short for tophel sheqer, literally "falsehood plasterer;" see Job xiii:4). Klein writes that the names of devils in the Middle Ages "are in most cases derived from Hebrew."
实用例句
1. Everything is black in it, and every one appeared to have Mephistopheles'character.
在这剧本里,一切都是黑暗的, 而且所有人都表现出恶魔Mephistopheles的性格.
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2. Mephistopheles is a main character in the poetic play Faust, who is the incarnation of devil.
