evil
O.E. yfel (Kentish evel) "bad, vicious," from P.Gmc. *ubilaz (cf. O.Saxon ubil, Goth. ubils), from PIE *upelo-, giving the word an original sense of "uppity, overreaching bounds" which slowly worsened. "In OE., as in all the other early Teut. langs., exc. Scandinavian, this word is the most comprehensive adjectival expression of disapproval, dislike or disparagement" [OED]. Evil was the word the Anglo-Saxons used where we would use bad, cruel, unskillful, defective (adj.), or harm, crime, misfortune, disease. The meaning "extreme moral wickedness" was in O.E., but did not become the main sense until 18c. Evil eye (L. oculus malus) was O.E. eage yfel.Evil has similar origins to "Ill" ("Ill-ness", since it's hard to real here), but it seems the word took an etymological twist, most likely when brought in connection with "pure", "pious" ("purus"), where "evil" is the reversion of that. If so, "evil" got stronger as a sort of notion of "moral impurity" and thus the "moral wickedness" (where "wickedness" comes from "wicce/a" ie., what we now know as "witch" and with the connotation of "dealings with the devil").
It seems then, although I cannot be sure, that "evil" picked up in popularity when it got tied in with (ir)religion. If that trend is followed, then you can look up the bases for most of our present understandings of "evil" in medieval theologian's works, and perhaps put those texts in perspective by considering the etymological roots of the word.
It looks like you have a similar understanding to the "american-typed evil", which is "having no place in this world" (just like a disease would have no place in a healthy community or organism), or would I be mistaken in interpreting it that way? :]
