From late Latin Beëlzebub, translating Hebrew ba‘al zĕḇūḇ 'lord of flies', the name of a Philistine god (2 Kings 1:2), and Greek Beelzeboul 'the Devil' (Matt. 12:24).

• lord from Old English:

  The root meaning of lord was ‘keeper of bread’. Old English from hlafweard, it comes from early forms of loaf and ward. The corresponding female form is lady, in Old English hlafdige ‘kneader of bread’. The Devil has many names, among them Lord of the Flies, the literal meaning of the Hebrew form Beelzebub. In 1954 William Golding published Lord of the Flies in which a group of schoolboys marooned on an uninhabited island revert to savagery and ritualistic behaviour.