Faustian
/ˈfaʊstiən/noun
Relating to Faust or to the pursuit of power, knowledge, or success through a morally destructive bargain.
Did you know?The Faust legend’s famous bargain with the Devil was literary mythology built around the sixteenth-century German figure Johann Georg Faust, an itinerant magician and astrologer—not a documented supernatural event.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*bʰeh₂u-
“To be favorable or receive favor; the reconstructed root behind Latin words connected with goodwill.”
Classical Latin
Latin
faustus
“Auspicious, fortunate, or blessed; derived from the verb faveō, “to favor.””
16th Century
German
Faust
“The name associated with Johann Georg Faust, a traveling magician, astrologer, and alleged practitioner of occult arts.”
16th–17th Century
German
Faustbuch
“The Faust Book, a popular prose legend describing Faust’s pact with the Devil in exchange for supernatural knowledge and worldly pleasures.”
1808
German
Faust
“Goethe’s dramatic tragedy transformed Faust into the archetype of the ambitious person who risks moral ruin for knowledge and experience.”
19th Century
English
Faustian
“An adjective meaning relating to Faust, later extended to any dangerously costly bargain made for power, success, or forbidden knowledge.”
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