deceitful

Etymology

It is formed from English deceit + -ful,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Middle English desaitful.^[7] Deceit is from Old French deceite, the feminine past participle of deceveir, from Latin dēcipiō (“to ensnare, beguile, cheat”), from dē- and capiō (“to take”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grasp”).^[2] An earlier adjective of the same meaning was deceivant, from the late 14th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Guileful, given to deceiving: about 1450, in the text that the Middle English Dictionary cites as De C Mulieribus (Hanyball..Was euer disseytfull and fraudulent).^[5] Etymonline also says the mid-15th century,^[2] and Dictionary.com 1400–50.^[8] The OED's first record is the Catholicon Anglicum of 1483,^[3] which the MED dates to about 1475.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word covers both people and things: a person given to cheating, and something misleading or false, where it comes close to deceptive.^[3][7] Johnson (1755) defines it as "fraudulent; full of deceit", and his quotations show both uses, Shakespeare's "false, deceitful" of Macbeth and Thomson's fortune which "smil'd, deceitful, on her birth".^[6] Merriam-Webster quotes Coleridge's "smooth, shining, and deceitful as thin ice".^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – guileful, given to deceiving.^[5] The OED's first record is from 1483.^[3]
• late Middle English – the derivatives deceitfully and deceitfulness.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Given to deception; dishonest: His deceitful business partner had emptied the account.^[9][7][3]
2. Of a thing, misleading or deceptive: The deceitful calm of the morning gave way to a storm.^[7][3][4]

Word family

• deceitfully
• deceitfulness
• undeceitful

Related words

• deceit
• deceive
• deception
• deceptive
• capture

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins