From Middle English gile, from Anglo-Norman gile, from Old French guile, from Frankish *wigila, from Proto-Germanic *wīlą, from Proto-Indo-European *wey-.

• IPA: /ɡaɪl/

guile

1. (uncountable) Astuteness often marked by a certain sense of cunning or artful deception.
2. Deceptiveness, deceit, fraud, duplicity, dishonesty.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, John 1:47 ↗:

     Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

• French: ruse, fourberie
• German: Gerissenheit, Hinterhältigkeit
• Italian: astuzia, inganno, frode
• Portuguese: astúcia
• Russian: хи́трость
• Spanish: astucia

• German: Hinterlist, Täuschung, Betrug
• Russian: обман
• Spanish: trampa, engaño

guile (guiles, present participle guiling; simple past and past participle guiled)

1. To deceive, beguile, bewile.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     Who means no guile, be guiled soonest shall

• wile

• French: tromper, entourlouper
• German: irreleiten, irreführen
• Italian: ingannare, turlupinare
• Russian: обма́нывать

Variant forms.

1. Obsolete form of gold
2. Alternative form of gyle

• As an English, Scottish, and French - surname, borrowed from French guile.
• Also as an English surname, variant of Gill.
• Possibly also Americanized from the German - surname Geil.

1. Surname.