fatal

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfeɪ.təl/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French fatal or directly Latin fātālis (“ordained by fate; destructive, deadly”),^[2][3][4] from fātum (“fate”) (see fate).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Decreed by fate, destined: about 1374–80, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Fraught with destiny, fateful, is from about 1386.^[5][3] Causing or attended with death is first recorded in Lydgate's Troy Book (before 1420),^[2][3] and concerned with destiny from 1447.^[5][3] Doomed is from 1509,^[5] and ominous, foreboding mischief, from 1590.^[5] Hoad dates the sense deadly to the 16th century and disastrous to the 17th.^[4] The original senses are now obsolete.^[3] Fatalist is from 1650 and fatalism from 1678.^[2] In Suffolk dialect that's fatal meant that it was settled, as if by fate.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – destined.^[5]
• c. 1386 – fateful.^[5]
• before 1420 – deadly.^[2]
• 1447 – concerned with destiny.^[5]
• 1590 – ominous.^[5]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Causing or able to cause death: a fatal accident.
2. Causing ruin; disastrous.
3. Decisively important; fateful.
4. Decreed by fate; destined.

Word family

• fatalness
• fatalism
• fatality
• fatally
• nonfatal

Related words

• fate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ 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)