What is "screwtape"

vb. 1 To mess things up, to corrupt, to be devilish. 2 (context slang Internet English) To bump a particularly old topic thread on the internet or in an electronic forum, by posting an ironic or humorous reply to a previous message.

Screwtape appears as a fictional devil in the book The Screwtape Letters (1942) and in its sequel short story Screwtape Proposes a Toast (1959), both written by the Christian author C. S. Lewis. Screwtape is also the title of the stage adaptation of the Letters by James Forsyth (originally Dear Wormwood, 1961).

Screwtape holds the rank of Senior Tempter and serves as the Undersecretary of his department in what Lewis envisages as a sort of infernal Civil Service. The Letters represent his side of the correspondence with his nephew Wormwood, as mentor to the young devil who is charged with the guidance of one man. The Toast is Screwtape's after-dinner speech at the Tempters' Training College and satirises American and British or English public education. Screwtape has a secretary called Toadpipe.

Screwtape appears to understand very well the nature of human minds and human weaknesses, although nothing about human love. He also has a way with words and a fondness for sarcasm.