guile
\ gahyl \ , noun;
1.insidious cunning in attaining a goal; crafty or artful deception; duplicity.
Quotes:
The infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile , / Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived / The mother of mankind…
-- John Milton, "Paradise Lost," 1667
Untrained human nature was not frank and innocent; it was full of the twists and defences of an instinctive guile .
-- Edith Wharton, "The Age of Innocence," 1920
Origin:
Though the origins of guile are unknown, it is thought to have come to Middle English from a Germanic source, by way of Old French.
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