Daeva (
daēuua,
daāua,
daēva) in
Avestan language meaning "a being of shining light", is a term for a particular sort of supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. Equivalents in
Iranian languages include
Pashto dêw (Uber
ghost,
demon, giant),
Baluchi dêw (
giant,
monster),
Persian dīv (a demon, an
ogre, a giant),
Kurdish dêw (
giant, monster). The Iranian word is borrowed into Urdu as
deo and Georgian as
devi. In the
Gathas, the oldest texts of the
Zoroastrian canon, the
daevas are "wrong gods" or "false gods" or "gods that are (to be) rejected". This meaning is—subject to interpretation—perhaps also evident in the
Old Persian '
daiva inscription' of the 5th century BCE. In the
Younger Avesta, the
daevas are noxious creatures that promote chaos and disorder. In later tradition and folklore, the
dēws (Zoroastrian
Middle Persian;
New Persian divs) are personifications of every imaginable evil.