Speak of the devil

"Speak of the devil" is the short form of the idiom "Speak of the devil and he doth appear" (or its alternative form "speak of the devil and he shall appear."). It is used when an object of discussion unexpectedly becomes present during the conversation. It can also be used about a topic that quickly becomes relevant, such as the onset of rain or a car breaking down. Used in this sense it can be seen as an alternative to the phrase "tempting fate".

Deriving from the Middle Ages, this proverb (which was, and to a certain extent still is, rendered as "Talk of the Devil...") was a superstitious prohibition against speaking directly of the Devil or of evil in general, which was considered to incite that party to appear, generally with unfortunate consequences. Its first printed usage in modern English can be found in Giovanni Torriano's Piazza Universale (1666), as "The English say, Talk of the Devil, and he's presently at your elbow."

The phrase lost its overt message during the 19th century, during which it became a warning against eavesdroppers ("No good of himself does a listener hear, / Speak of the devil he's sure to appear"), and by the 20th century had taken on its present meaning.

Speak of the Devil (Ozzy Osbourne album)

Speak of the Devil is a live album by English heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. The album consists entirely of renditions of songs originally recorded by Osbourne's previous band Black Sabbath. It was released on 27 November 1982. The album was entitled Talk of the Devil in the UK, that being the more commonly expressed idiom there.

In the UK, it was the second of four Osbourne albums to attain Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in January 1983.

Overview

The album sleeve states that it was recorded at The Ritz in New York on 26 and 27 September 1982, though this may not be entirely correct. Album producer Max Norman stated in 2007 that due to a limited budget, he had Osbourne perform an entire show in the afternoon (of which day he wasn't clear) with no audience. That performance was recorded in the event that the actual live performance that night was not of suitable quality for release. "At least we've got a choice and we'll have more material to draw from", he said. According to Norman, the finished album features three songs from that performance with crowd noise later added in post-production. Though Norman did not specifically identify which tracks he was referring to, he said "If you got nothing to do for a couple of days you could just lie there and listen to them in the headphones and figure out which songs had the real audience and which ones didn't."

Speak of the Devil (disambiguation)

Speak of the devil is an English idiom.

Speak of the Devil may also refer to: