In Gogol’s Dead Souls, Korobochka panics when Chichikov threatens her with the devil. Georgievsky explains why: folk belief held that repeatedly calling on the devil could invite him in.

A demon can enter an adult when a person has grown accustomed to invoking it—“swearing,” calling on the devil—without even noticing. The person grows out of the habit of praying, and the devil gains more and more power over them; finally, the devil “takes control of the person’s will” and enters them. [...]

That is why the word “devil” is used rarely. When someone loses their temper and starts calling on him in the heat of the moment, others cross themselves and warn the person summoning devils: if you call too many of them, how will you manage them?

A. Georgievsky, “Folk Demonology,” in Olonets Collection: Materials on History, Geography, Statistics, and Ethnography, 1902.