Some terms now used to refer to the Devil (for instance, Lucifer) didn't come up until rather late (at least in Portuguese, Wikipedia isn't much clear for the English term).
On the other hand, some terms were in use since the Middle Ages. Wikipedia mentions that
The Modern English word devil descends from the Middle English devel, from Old English dēofol, that in turn represents an early Germanic borrowing of Latin diabolus. This in turn was borrowed from Ancient Greek Greek: διάβολος (diábolos), "slanderer",[6] from 'Greek: 'διαβάλλειν (diabállein) "to slander": διά- (diá-) "across, through" + βάλλειν (bállein) "to hurl", probably akin to the Sanskrit gurate "he lifts up".
So it's obvious that the term devil (in an older form) was in use in the British Isles since a very early age.
My question is about the term 'Satan'. Despite its origin being very old (which the etymological dictionaries I checked online clearly show), I wonder when did it come into common use. After all, folks say 'what the devil' but not 'what the satan', or some such. Is it only because it is a mouthful, or is it because it was a late newcomer?
P.S.: I believe the answer to my question is to be found in OED but, alas, I cannot access it.
Best Answer
The Google Books optical character recognition tool does a poor job of reading books printed in blackletter, which was the dominant form of English printing until the late 1500s—so Google Books is not very good at finding instances of particular words from texts of the blackletter era.
Nevertheless, in one instance Google Books was able to find a match for Satan because it appears in roman type because Satan is the a character in a play. From the opening scene of Thomas Lupton, A Moral and Pitieful Comedie, Intituled, All for Money: Plainly Representing the Manners of Men and Fashion of the World Nowe-a-days (1578):
Slightly earlier instances appear in Thomas Owen, Godly Contemplations for the Unlearned (1575) [combined snippets]:
in John Collier, The Rocke of Regard, Divided into Foure Parts (1576):
and in Innocent Gentillet, A Discourse upon the Meanes of Wel Governing and Maintaining in Good Peace, A Koingdome, or Other Principalitie (1577/1602):
And similarly, from Geffrey Whitney, The Choice of Emblemes (1586, page 129):
From George Gifford, A Dialogue Concerning Withes and Witchcraft (1593):
From Robert Roche, Eustathia, Or the Constancie of Susanna (1599):
From "W.S.," The Puritaine: or, The Widdow of Watling Street (1607):
And from Johannes Boemus, The Manners Lawes and Customes of All Nations (translated 1611):
In addition to all of these instances, we have The Bible. Translated according to the Ebrew and Greeke, and conferred with the best translations in diuers languages (1605), which, according to Google Books, contains 49 pages with one or more matches for Satan, but in fact has many more, since once again Google Books' OCR struggles to pull the word Satan out of the blackletter text of the Bible itself, but does better finding the word in the roman accompanying notes. Particularly noteworthy is the Book of Job, in which Satan makes a memorable entrance in verse 6 of chapter 1:
Conclusions
The foregoing examples present Satan (or Sathan) as a familiar figure to readers of the the period 1575–1611. And I see no reason to suppose that this familiarity arose suddenly in 1575.
The problem with searches of earlier books is that they run afoul of the books' hard-to-read blackletter type. But for evidence that Satan is not a latecomer to popular discourse in English, consider that he receives three mentions in the Man of Law's Tale in The Canterbury Tales (1387):
Likewise, Sattan plays a prominent role in "The Harrowing of Hell" in the York Mystery Plays (14th to 16th centuries):
So it may be that English speakers have been on more or less intimate terms with Satan/Sathan/Sattan since before Middle English gave way to Modern English. In a culture steeped in Christianity, familiarity with the Bible's various human, angelic, and diabolical characters must have been very widespread indeed. And Satan is certainly one of the more visible malevolent figures in it. I would be very surprised if demonic characters such as Satan, Lucifer, and Beelzebub were not as well known in their way as heroic figures such as Samson, Judith, and Joshua were in theirs.