Why “diablery” is a great word
DIABLERY — [Noun] The practice of sorcery with the specific aim of summoning or consorting with the Devil. From French diablerie, from diable ("devil"), from Latin diabolus ("devil"), from Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos, "slanderer, accuser"). Unlike "witchcraft," which implies a broader, often folk-based practice of magic, or "mischief," which denotes playful, harmless trouble, diablery is a formal and transactional covenant with ultimate malevolence. It is the stench of sulfur in a sealed room, the inverted Latin chanted for a pact, and the cold, contractual weight of a signed parchment—the profound and melancholy ambition of a soul that chooses to be its own ruin.