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"Devil" with an initial "dr-" consonant cluster

Language Log 2025-12-10

I was intrigued by the surname of a very nice man whom I met at Home Depot.  His name was Steven Dreibelbis, and his position in the store was that of "Customer Experience Manager".

Steven'a surname, Dreibelbis, sounded very German to me.  I asked him about it and he told me that he was indeed of German descent on his father's side, but his mother was Colombian and his grandmother was Peruvian, so he looked more South American than German.

He said that his father had gone to South America to seek his fortune (selling cars), but that he still had relatives in Pennsylvania Dutch country.

I became all the more interested in his heritage.

I guessed that the "drei" of his surname meant "three", but couldn't find any German word that sounded like belbis.  So I looked up Dreibelbis directly and this is what I found:

The Dreibelbis surname is an Americanized variation of the Swiss German name Deubelbeiss, meaning "devil's bite" (from German Dūvel "devil" + beiz "biter"). It arrived in America with early German/Swiss immigrants, particularly in Pennsylvania, evolving from spellings like Debelbissen, Deubelbiss, and Devilbiss, and is strongly associated with historic farms and communities in Berks County, PA. 

Key Characteristics:

    • Origin: Swiss German, linked to regions near Germany and Switzerland.
    • Meaning: "Devil's Bite" or "Devil Biter".
    • Evolution: From Deubelbeiss to various forms like Dreibelbis, Divelbiss, and Devilbiss.
    • Early American Presence: Strong presence in Pennsylvania, with early records showing families in the 1840s and 1880s.
    • Historical Significance: Connected to historic sites like the Dreibelbis Farm in Berks County, PA, preserving local history.  (also here)

In Summary: Dreibelbis is a surname of German origin, representing a fascinating linguistic journey from medieval German/Swiss dialect to its common American form, often tied to specific family histories and locations in the United States

(AIO)

So the first part is the same as the surname of a colleague of Swabian ancestry who is called "Teufel" ("Devil").

I asked June whether her Swabian relatives have any permutations of their surname that begin with a "dr-" consonant cluster.  She couldn't think of any, but instead said:

My interest in the name comes from noticing how German changes into Dutch and then changes again into English, as in Teufelèduyvilè devil.  Curious about how Spuyten Duyvil (Bridge) got its name, I was told that it meant “to spite the devil” b/c the bridge enabled people to cross the treacherous waters underneath it. But later learned there are a couple of other translations.  Regardless, and since no one appears to know for sure, I prefer the one I first learned.

Here's an extensive explanation of the place name:

Spuyten Duyvil (/ˈspaɪtən ˈdaɪvəl/, SPY-tən-DIE-vəl) is a neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. It is bounded on the north by Riverdale, on the east by Kingsbridge, on the south by the Harlem River, and on the west by the Hudson River. Some consider it to be the southernmost part of Riverdale.

The area is named after Spuyten Duyvil Creek. "Spuyten Duyvil" may be literally translated as "Spouting Devil" or Spuitende Duivel in Dutch, a reference to the strong and wild tidal currents found at that location. It may also be translated as "Spewing Devil" or "Spinning Devil", or more loosely as "Devil's Whirlpool" or "Devil's Spate." Spui is a Dutch word involving outlets for water. Historian Reginald Pelham Bolton, however, argues that the phrase means "spouting meadow", referring to a fresh-water spring at Inwood Hill.

An additional translation, "to spite the Devil" or "in spite of the devil", was popularized by a story in Washington Irving's A Knickerbocker's History of New York published in 1809. Set in the 1660s, the story tells of trumpeter Antony Van Corlear summoned by "Peter de Groodt" to warn settlers of an attempted British invasion, with Corlear attempting to swim across the "Harlean river" from Fort Amsterdam to the Bronx mainland "in spite of the devil (spyt den duyvel)", Irving writes. The treacherous current pulled him under and he lost his life. This resulted in the name "Spuyten Duyvil" for "the adjoining promontory, which projects into the Hudson."

An extensive appendix to Studies in Etymology and Etiology (2009) by David L. Gold, which includes commentary by Rob Rentenaar, professor of onomastics at the University of Amsterdam, goes into great detail about all the various translations for "Spuyten Duyvil" which have been mooted over the years.  Rentenaar concludes that "Duyvil" means "devil", either literally or in a transferred sense, but he could not determine what the intended meaning of "Spuyten" was because of the many variants that have been used throughout history.

The creek was referred to as Shorakapok by Lenape Native Americans in the area, translated as "the sitting-down place" or "the place between the ridges".

(Wikipedia)

Incidentally, "speak of the devil" (or "talk of the devil") is an idiom used when someone you were just talking about unexpectedly appears, short for the older phrase "Speak of the devil and he doth appear,"

I mention this English idiom because it has a curious equivalent in Chinese:

shuō Cáo Cāo Cáo Cāo jiù dàole

說曹操曹操就到了

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear"

(Cao Cao [155-220])

Even more curious is how similar sayings occur in languages spread across the world:

A cognate of this phrase appears in the 15th century Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms as 说曹操，曹操到 or "Speak of Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrives".

In many cultures a different, dangerous, person or character is referenced in the phrase. In Serbian, the phrase translates to, "Speak of the wolf and he is at your door." French translates it to "Speak of the wolf and you see its tail". In Czech it's "We talk about the Wolf, and the Wolf is at the door". Tunisian has it as "Mention the cat, and it comes to you jumping". Though, when it's a person whom it's talked about and they become present, it's often said "How long is your life!". In Norwegian it's "Speak of the sun, it will shine". In Swedish it's "When you speak of the trolls, they're in the hallway". In Hungarian it is "Emlegetett szamár" meaning approximately "Here is the mentioned donkey". In Spain it's "Talking about the King of Rome and through the door he comes".

(Wiktionary)

The Swedish parallel is especially captivating to me because I'm in the midst of preparing a major post on trolls, also because the word begins with a dental + liquid consonant cluster.

All because of a personable Customer Experience Manager at the local Home Depot.

 

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