dutiful

Etymology

It is formed from English duty + -ful.^[2][3][4][5] Duty is from Middle English duete,^[6][7] from Anglo-Norman dueté,^[2][7] which is formed on du, the Anglo-Norman form behind due,^[2][8] from Old French deu (“owed”), the past participle of devoir (“to owe”), from Latin dēbeō (“to owe”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Giving the service, attention and regard owed to a superior: 1552, in R. Huloet's Abcedarium Anglico Latinum.^[2][7] Etymonline gives the 1550s, and Dictionary.com the range 1545–55.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective was built on the older sense of duty as the conduct owed to a superior, recorded from the 13th century.^[8] That tie to a superior stayed with it: Johnson (1755) defined it first as obedient and submissive to natural or legal superiors, with Swift's "the most dutiful son", and second as expressing respect, with Sidney's "dutiful reverence".^[9] A use for what merely concerns duty or obligation is recorded once, in 1588, and died out.^[2] Modern dictionaries centre on a sense of duty itself, and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also speaks of respect for one's own moral obligations.^[7][10] duteous arose in the same century,^[8] and it is the form Shakespeare used.^[3] In Cumberland dialect a dutiful worker took an interest in the job and did as much as the master expected, or more.^[11]

Timeline

• 1552 – full of duty; giving the regard due to a superior.^[2][7]
• 1588 – relating to duty or obligation (rare, now obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having or showing a sense of duty; willingly obedient or conscientious: a dutiful nephew.^[10][7][4]
2. Done out of a sense of duty, or expressing it; deferential: her dutiful visits to the old house.^[10][7]

Word family

• dutifully
• dutifulness
• undutiful

Related words

• duty
• due
• duteous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)